Swiss ski legend Roland Collombin dies aged 75

Roland Collombin after victory in Kitzbühel, Austria, January 1974. Keystone

The man from canton Valais, who won silver in the downhill race at the Sapporo Winter Olympics in 1972, had been battling illness for two years.

Ultimately the illness proved stronger than the thrill-seeking skier who loved to brave the planet’s steepest slopes. “The Dove has flown”, as the Valais newspaper Le Nouvelliste headlined.

After overcoming throat cancer, Collombin faced liver cancer, and spent several periods in hospital. According to a post on Instagram by his family, the man with eight World Cup victories passed away peacefully in the house where he was born, surrounded by family.

Collombin’s career was short, with everything packed into just two years. At the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, he finished second behind his arch-rival Bernhard Russi, despite having no previous World Cup podium finishes. Coaches had thought he had what it took to achieve something at the highest level in Japan.

In December 1971, he finished seventh in the Val d’Isère downhill race in France. But the Oreiller-Killy slope at the resort would leave its mark on him. After finishing fourth in 1972, he crashed in December 1974 but managed to get back up. A year later, it was a different story. With injured vertebrae, he spent three months in hospital in Basel. He made a full recovery but would not return to competition. The French slope has not forgotten him: the place where he crashed has since been called the “Bosse à Collombin”.

Taming the Streif – twice

Collombin claimed his first World Cup win in 1972 in Val Gardena, Italy. In January 1973, the “madman” won on the Streif slope in Kitzbühel, Austria. In January 1974, he had an exceptional month with four downhill wins, including Wengen and Kitzbühel again.

These victories earned him the overall downhill prize for the second time in two seasons. At that point, he was going better than Russi and the Austrian great Franz Klammer. Then Val d’Isère disrupted everything. Retiring at the age of 24 is highly unusual. Without that, he would no doubt have collected more trophies.

Collombin’s wins made him famous, but his character and his bon vivant side earned him a place in Swiss hearts. In the early 1970s, television put a major spotlight on ski racing, and Switzerland immediately loved his rivalry with Russi, the “professor”.

After his career, he ran a drinks delivery company. In 2015, he opened a raclette bar in Martigny and named it “La Streif”. He is survived by his wife Sarah, his two children Emmanuelle and Pierre, and two grandchildren.

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Translated from French, reviewed by an English Department journalist.