Jean Vuarnet was a French ski instructor and ski racer in the 1950s who ended his career with one epic run at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympic games. With his sharp eye for innovation and technology, he adopted the latest innovations to prepare for the 1960 Olympic Games and set the stage for his second career as a business man.
Jean Vuarnet was a French ski instructor and ski racer in the 1950s who ended his career with one epic run at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympic games. With his sharp eye for innovation and technology, he adopted the latest innovations to prepare for the 1960 Olympic Games and set the stage for his second career as a business man.
“Wooden skis are for the tourists!”
Hi there and welcome to Ski Heroes. My name is Eivind, and today is September 4th 2022 as I’m recording Episode 5 from the ski lodge in Houston, TX, the skiing capital of the world.
It’s been two weeks since the last Ski Heroes episode came out, and what a two weeks it has been! The night before I recorded the previous episode I had celebrated my 40th birthday, and you can maybe kinda hear this in my voice from that recording. Although I celebrated the birthday on August 20th, my actual birthday was not until the 25th. And things really worked out for that one, because one of my best friends Pelle who lives in Austria was getting married on the 27th. So I flew to Europe for essentially a long weekend, spending my birthday in Munich, one of my favorite cities, and then drove down to Austria for Pelle and Andrea’s wedding which took place in the Tyrolian ski town of Seefeld. It was an amazing trip, and such a cool way to turn 40. But I think at this point both my liver and my wallet is hurting enough so it’s time to adjust to the new decade and let reality set in.
In either case, congratulations again to Pelle and Andrea!
Another piece of exciting news is that last week I was a guest on the podcast the Skippy Report. The host Keith Woods reached out to me after having listened to the first Ski Heroes episode about Sondre Norheim and invited me to his show. It was a great time, where the concept was to drink a beer and talk about telemark skiing for an hour or so. I mean, what is there not to like! So thank you again to Keith for having me on, and I can’t wait to hear the final product when you release the episode soon.
But enough about me, let’s move on to this week’s episode. As I mentioned at the end of the Picabo Street series, I felt it was time we highlight someone from the Alps, which is maybe the area that most people think about when it comes to skiing. The alpine region has raised so many great skiers through the years that there’s almost an infinite supply to choose from. And I really made it difficult for myself picking a French skier, as I have never studies French and I barely know a word of French aside from volevuz coshe avec moi sessois. I therefore have to apologize in advance for my butchering of the French language. I just want you all to know that I tried my very very best! 😊
Despite my poor pronunciation, the story is a very fascinating one. If you like to read popular science literature such as the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell you may have heard the theory that success is the sum of a lot of small advantages. And what matters is really just to be talented enough, not necessarily the most talented, and then the rest is hard work and small advantages you can gain. That sets the stage nicely for our Ski Hero this week. A talented skier indeed, but also someone who knew how to exploit technique and equipment to pull it all together for one epic Olympic race. And with that, I give you this weeks Ski Hero, French skier Jean Vuarnet.
For me, Vuarnet was a brand of sunglasses before I knew it was a skier. And damn good sunglasses too. But the man behind the brand is Jean Vuarnet. Or that’s actually not true. He’s the name behind the brand. The man behind the brand was Roger Pouilloux, a Paris based optometrist and ski enthusiast who invented the Skilynx lens technology. A technology that gave the skier a clearer vision as it mirrored out glare from both the sun and reflections from the snow while maintaining a clear field in the middle of the goggle lens, and that helped the skier better see contrasts in the terrain. The same Roger Pouilloux who offered Jean Vuarnet a pair of ski goggles with his Skilynx technology ahead of the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympic games, and who offered Vuarnet a piece of his company if he would license his name and let him use it as the brand name for the sunglasses he made after the 1960 games.
And becoming the brand name for sunglasses that used the lens technology he had tried while ski racing seemed fitting for Jean Vuarnet. Because his story is almost as much about equipment as it is about skiing. Indeed a very talented skier, but there were many other talented skiers back then, just like there are now. The young Jean had a big passion for skiing from a very young age. Born in the Tunisian capital of Tunis on January 18th 1933, a city about as famous for its skiing as Houston, TX is, his father was a doctor in the former French colony. The family moved to Morizine in the French alps when Jean was one year old. Jean quickly picked up skiing as his favorite hobby. As he once told a newspaper during an interview: “I was not a skiing expert by any means, but I found myself in a place where skiing was the only thing to do!”. And when it was time to go to the university he enrolled in law school in Grenoble. He was not much of a talent in law. Nor was he a good student. In fact, he never even finished law school. But Grenoble offered more than studying. Advertising itself as the “Capital of the Alps”, Grenoble would later host the winter Olympics in 1968. But that’s much after our story ends, so let’s just stick with Capital of the Alps for now. In fact, Grenoble today has over 700,000 people living there, ahead of other classic alp cities such as Innsbruck and Bolzano. And it’s surrounded by ski resorts, world class ones such as La Clusaz, Megeve, and Le Saisies. And that’s of course why young Jean Vuarnet decided to study law just there, and also why he never finished his law studies. Vuarnet started ski racing at a serious level during his time in Grenoble. During his time in Grenoble he also became a ski instructor, and even wrote three books on skiing before the 1960 Olympics.
As a student of skiing technique, he observed early on that while most world class ski racers had a strikingly similar technique, there was a stark difference between how ski instructors taught skiing to beginners vs how the champions skied. The ski racers would obviously train on the mountain, but beginners would usually start off the slope. There are even examples of beginner skiers being hoisted up in the air by ropes and belts, with skis on, to try to learn how to do ski turns up in the air. Vuarnet did not understand any of this. As a ski instructor he instead proposed the idea that beginners should start on the slope as soon as possible, not waste time training off the snow.
As he later wrote in his 1967 book “How to ski the new French way”
There should not be any conflict between the movements taught to a beginner and the movements performed by the champion. Unfortunately, very sharp separation exists in most countries between the worlds of ski competition and ski instruction. This separation is the source of the differences between the teaching methods of these countries. On the other hand, there is an astonishing similarity in the movements of ski champions of all nationalities. Thus, linking our own competitive and instructional programs closely together, we have found it possible to improve instruction methods by utilizing the latest discoveries in ski racing. And this formed the thesis of what became known as the New French way of Skiing. This was a radical way of thinking about teaching beginners how to ski, and it tied nicely in with Vuarnet’s adoption of technology and new technique in his competitive skiing career as well.
So as I mentioned, Vuarnet was a fairly talented skier, but he was surrounded by many other equally if not more talented skiers. But Vuarnet’s edge was his eye for innovation and technique, and his open mind to external impulses to constantly optimize both his own technique and his equipment.
In the 1950s and 60s, ski racing was an amateur’s game. In fact, the Olympics at the time were an amateur’s game, where professional athletes for the longest time could not compete. To make it to the top as a ski racer you had to fight on all fronts, and not just on the snow. For one, you had to make money to keep racing. There was also a very limited support staff that travelled around with the skiers and racers usually had to tune their own skis. Jean Vuarnet was a ski racer by heart, but a ski instructor by trade to make a living and to keep racing. Giving it your all on the snow was one way to make it to the top. But another avenue for advancement was equipment. And yet another one was technique. When straight-lining, downhill racers at the time would kind squat down with their legs below parallel and stretch their arms forward to reduce air resistance, but their upper body was still fairly straight up. Vuarnet started experimenting with leaning his upper body more forward on top of his legs so that his upper body became parallel to the ground. This reduced air resistance by a large factor, and it quickly became know as the egg position, the ski position we now know as the tuck. And for those of you who listened the previous episodes about Picabo Street we learned how her optimized version of the tuck position was her competitive edge as well in the 1990s. With that, Jean Vuarnet became the inventor of the tuck position, something that gave him a valuable edge in his racing. Former US downhill racer Steve Porino would later say that: “The tuck seems so obvious and self-evident that we forget someone had to invent it. You simply cannot survive without a tuck in ski racing.”
And since the tuck gave Vuarnet an edge mostly in the speed events, downhill became his arena and the only discipline he really competed in.
Vuarnet’s story as a world class skier honestly is a fairly short one. He became French champion five times in the 1950s, yet he did not qualify for the 1956 Olympics in Cortina in Italy. There’s honestly very limited information available on his racing for most of the 1950s. Most of the 1950s were dominated by the Austrian team, and their star skier Tony Sailer in particular. The Austrian team was known as the Wunder-Team for their dominance on the slopes in that decade. Toward the end of the 50s, Vuarnet at least established himself on the French national team. Although he was not the star skier, he did win the downhill bronze medal at the 1958 World Championships in Bad Gastein in Austria, a race that of course was won by Tony Sailer, the same racer who also won the 56 Olympics in Cortina.
And that essentially, and already brings us to the 1959-1960 season, the season when the 1960 Olympic Games took place in Squaw Valley in California in the United States. What Jean Vuarnet lacked in talent, he made up for with his ability to observe others and to optimize his technique. The tuck position undoubtedly gave him a huge advantage in downhill even though his technique on the turns was not as good as some of the other skiers’. Equipment was another thing. Up through the 1950s skis were made of wood. Alpine skis had had metal edges for a long time, and also a plastic sole, but the ski itself was wooden. In the late 1950s French ski manufacturer Rossignol started experimenting with metal skis, skis that were made of aluminum. In today’s ski racing, the skis for each athlete are special made to fit the skiers height, weight, and style of skiing. In sharp contrast to this, a ski manufacturer back in the 50s would simply drop off a bunch of skis for the ski team at the beginning of the season, and each skier would then sift through them to find a pair that worked for him. As the 1959-60 season started, Vuarnet ended up with a pair of skis that were far to flexible for him. He rushed to the Rossignol factory in shear desperation to find some better skis for the season and he found some shiny metallic skis that seemed to fit him well. The skis were actually a used pair and had been discarded by another skier. Vuarnet took them for a test run during a race in Megeve early that season for the Emile Allais Cup, the race named after legendary French skier Emile Allais. Despite one of the skis being damaged Vuarnet still finished 5th in the race. So he called up Rossignol to make him a brand new pair of the metal skis as the Olympic Games were approaching.
Leading up to the 1960 Squaw Valley games, metal skis had started to become a hot topic in the world of ski racing. The Austrians, usually a country on the forefront of ski innovation, swore to the wooden skis. And of course, the Norwegians had barely even heard of metal skis, and in either case there was just no way the Norwegians would abandon the traditional wooden skis in favor of something new. But some of the French skiers saw the potential in the new ski, and Vuarnet was one of them. In January of 1960 history was made as French skier Adrien Duvillard became the first skier on metal skis to win the legendary Kitzbuehl race in Austria. And leading up to the 1960 Olympics the French team were doing their best at hyping the ski, saying the team had tailor made skis for each individual, and that the skis were particularly well suited for the light California snow. Perhaps a bit posturing there by the French, anyone who has skied in California know that the snow in the Lake Tahoe area, although often abundant, can be heavy as cement. Nevertheless, the psychological war was definitely on, and going into the games the French Adrien Duvillard was considered a favorite to win together with his countryman Guy Perillat. Jean Vuarnet was considered an outsider at best. Yet, the Austrian wunder-team was definitely feeling the heat from the French.
Right before the Olympics, the Paris based optometrist Roger Pouilloux had sent a batch of new ski goggles to the French team with his new Skilynx lens technology. The lenses had mirror technology at the top and at the bottom to reflect light from both the sun and the snow. But in the middle of the google they were clearer, giving the skier the optimal vision for the slope. Or so he said. Although not adopted by all French skiers, Jean Vuarnet of course wanted to give this a try.
Monday February 22nd 1960 Jean Vuarnet made his first and only Olympic appearance at the men’s downhill race. The German Hans Peter Lanig was in the lead as Vuarnet approached the start. With start number 10, wearing a leather helmet, his dark blue and white striped race suit, his black Rossignol Allias 60 metal skis with the sky-blue sole, and of course his iconic yellow skilynx googles he looked like at least a million French francs as he launched onto the downhill slope. The course in Squaw Valley was not of the most difficult. Although it definitely had its challenging parts, and it’s bumps and jumps, the slope was fairly straight forward with lots of gliding instead of sharp turns. Right out of the gates, Vuarnet makes a mistake. At the very first turn of the slope he misjudges the speed and he gets pulled way to far down in the turn, losing valuable speed. Vuarnet immediately thinks that “well, that was it!”. He crouches down in his tuck position and attacks the rest of the slope. The metal skis prove superior on the slope, and so does his choice to not use ski wax on them at all. As the remainder of the slope is a fairly straight shot down to the finish line he clocks speeds of up to 120 km/h, or 75mph, breaking the California state speed limit of 65mph. He would later apologize for the speed violation. The downhill course is bathing in the California sun as Vuarnet races down and catches some good air over several of the bumps, of course maintaining perfect visibility with his Skilynx googles. As he crosses the finish line he is met by a large silence. The audio system for the speaker announcing the times had broken down, and so had the scoreboard that showed the finish time and position of each skier. The audience was mute. In the lead before Vuarnet was German skier Hans Peter Lanig. Finally the score board updates, Vuarnet is in the lead, half a second ahead of Lanig. Vuarnet’s countryman Guy Perillat was in third. And the Austrian wunder-team was not even on the podium! The French favorite to win the race, Adrien Duvillard raced after Vuarnet. At the middle split he was actually 1.5 seconds ahead of Vuarnet, a huge lead! But on the bumps toward the finish he could not stay on his feet and he wiped out, unable to finish the race. Sensationally, Jean Vuarnet was Olympic champion, winning France’s only gold in the Squaw Valley Olympics! And he was joined on the podium by his team mate Perillat who won bronze. And the best Austrian had finished 7th. What a win for France, and also what a win for the metal ski technology. The Austrian team later blamed their coach for not tuning their skis well enough for the race. And indeed, one could definitely say that the 1960 Olympic downhill race was as much about the equipment as it was about the man on top of the skis. Regardless, Jean Vuarnet had taken advantage of everything he could take advantage of to win; his tuck position was perfect for the Squaw Valley slope, the metal skis proved superior to wooden skis for the downhill, and finally his Skilynx goggles gave him crystal clear vision in the California sun. In 1960, Jean Vuarnet was only 27 years old. And aside from the 1958 world championship bronze medal he had really not made a name for himself at all on the international stage. Nevertheless, he decided this was it and he retired. Perhaps a smart decision for an above average talented skier but who probably never quite had what it took to become a dominant force over time in ski racing, but who was able to put it all together for this one race to win. And as we’ve seen so often both before and after, winning the Olympics opens up a lot of doors! Immediately after the Olympics, Vuarnet is offered the job as president of the Tourist office in his hometown of Morizine, and he immediately started developing the Avoriz ski resort. He, who had not finished his law studies, and was far from a mathematician, dove straight into the world of business and finance, drawing up the lines of what would become the future ski resort. And he became the visionary who eventually convinced the neighboring French and Swiss ski towns to link their mountains together, forming a two country-12 resort ski area with over 600km of slopes which would become know as the Portes De Solei, one of the largest ski areas in the world.
And not to end there. Upon his return from Squaw Valley, the optometrist Roger Pouilloux immediately offered Jean Vuarnet partnership in his company where Vuarnet would license his name to the brand of sunglasses and designing the Legend 02 model with the Skilynx lenses. I do have a pair of these sunglasses, and they do indeed offer very clear vision. At the same time, I can also appreciate the role of marketing and branding when it comes to the quote on quote superior vision Vuarnet described during his Squaw Valley downhill race.
In addition to his business ventures, Vuarnet also coached the Italian ski team for a while in the 1960s. And I was also debating whether I should even include anything about the tragedy that struck him in the 1990s when his wife and his youngest son committed suicide in a collective suicide by the sect Order of the Solar Templar. The story of Jean Vuarnet is a successful one, and an entrepreneurial and innovative one. And it’s almost like a tragedy like this doesn’t really fit into his story. At the same time I suppose it’s part of the human experience to go through an amazing life like Jean Vuarnet did, while also enduring some of life’s darkest moments.
Born in 1933, Jean Vuarnet died in on January 1st 2017 from a stroke, 18 days before his 84th birthday. And there ends our story on the first Olympic champion on metal skis, and the man behind my sunglasses.
The sources I used for this episode was the book How to ski the new French way by Jean Vuarnet, and then I used open sources on the internet including some old news paper articles from the 1950s and 60s. Especially interesting were the old articles from Norwegian news papers around the 1960 squaw valley games as the metal ski debate kept raging. Norwegian skiing pioneer Stein Eriksen was actually quoted celebrating the new technology, and he said that this was the future of skiing! But of course, at that point he had moved to America long ago and had been radicalized by new ways of thinking. The rest of Norwegian skiing authorities were of course strong opponents to this new type of skis.
This was a fairly short episode which was also quite quick to put together. This was perfect giving my traveling and other turning 40 festivities lately. With two Ski Heroes in a row being alpine skiers I think it is time we move to a different sport for the next episode. As usual, I have narrowed it down a bit, although I’ve not quite yet made up my mind who we will highlight next.
Until next time, you can stay up to speed on the latest and greatest on the Ski Heroes Instagram page. And if you want to write me, you can do so at skiheroes@gmail.com.
So thank you for listening, and take care until next time!