Jean Vuarnet

Gold medal-winning skiier whose life was touched by horror

Jean Vuarnet, a Frenchman who won gold in downhill skiing at the 1960 Winter Olympics using an innovative approach to aerodynamics and decades later endured the deaths of his wife and his youngest son in a doomsday cult’s murder-suicide ritual, died on Monday in Sallanches, France. He was 83. The cause was a stroke.

Vuarnet was 27 when he arrived in Squaw Valley, California, for the 1960 Games. He was not France’s best hope for a medal, but he was a student of skiing technique. In search of extra speed, he raced the 10,154-foot course in an unprecedented way — with his knees bent in a tuck position to reduce the drag on his body from the wind. The tuck requires skiers to squat, with their backs parallel to the slope and rear ends raised slightly above their heads.

Jean Raoul Célina André Vuarnet was born on 18 January 1933, in Le Bardo, Tunisia, but his family moved the next year to Morzine. He went to law school at the University of Grenoble in France, in part because of its proximity to skiing. After winning at Squaw Valley, Vuarnet licensed his name to a popular brand of high-end anti-glare sunglasses. He became the head of Morzine’s office of tourism and helped to develop the Avoriaz ski resort in Morzine.

In 1995, his wife, Edith, who competed in the downhill at the 1956 Winter Olympics, and their son Patrick were among the 16 people whose charred bodies were laid out in a star formationaroundtheremains of a campfire in the Vercors region of southeastern France.

Each had at least one bullet wound and had been doused with incendiary fluids. All were members of a cult called the Order of the Solar Temple.

Vuarnet had two other sons, Pierre and Alain.