Régine Cavagnoud

Régine Cavagnoud, France’s brightest sporting star, died on October 31st 2001, aged 31

One way to look at the short life of Régine Cavagnoud is that it was thrown away recklessly and needlessly. She died after colliding with a ski coach who was on the slopes. The collision seems not to have been her fault. Indeed, no one has been blamed. In Europe it is difficult to find high-quality skiing sites to practise on this early in the season, and the one used by Miss Cavagnoud may have been crowded. That said, there seemed to be an inevitability about the tragedy. Many times previously Miss Cavagnoud had been badly injured on the slopes while pushing herself to her natural limits, and probably beyond, in her drive to become a world champion.

Since her death, there have been cautionary words generally about the need for more regulation, and some observers have expressed surprise that she was on the slopes at all so soon after being injured in a skiing accident in Chile in August. But no such adverse comment has been heard in her native France. There she is, quite simply, a national heroine.

The French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, said Régine Cavagnoud had come “to embody” France’s passion for skiing. Mr Jospin, not by nature an emotional man, used the verb incarner, with its religious overtone. At her funeral last week, much covered on television, there were similar sentiments. The French do take their sport seriously; and Miss Cavagnoud, with her red hair and blue eyes and her blazing courage, was seen as a goddess by sports writers and their readers. She was only 31 and looked younger. She could become a candidate for the popular immortality that is sometimes, and mysteriously, bestowed on those who die young. James Dean, who made only three films before crashing his sports car at the age of 24, is one of the youthful pantheon. Buddy Holly, who died in an air crash at 22, is another. Some would be happy to beatify Princess Diana. Like her, Régine Cavagnoud died with her promise unfulfilled.

Her earliest recollection of skiing was when she was three. Her father was a carpenter at La Clusaz, a town in the French Alps where she was brought up. But when winter came he helped out at the local ski lifts, and Régine went with him. In the snowy places of the world children soon learn to ski, but Régine showed enough talent to be spotted when she was a teenager by scouts for the French national team. She joined the junior section at 16. A year later she had the first of the injuries that were to mark her career for the next 15 years. She tore the ligaments in her left knee. A little later she hurt her right knee. She broke a shoulder bone and several times hurt her back. Once she skied while wearing a surgical collar. Still, between injuries she became a regular with the French team. “After every injury”, she said, “I told myself that it was not over. My passion for skiing just carried me through.”

Her talent was slow to show results. In Japan in 1993, seven years into her skiing career, she could only manage 11th place in a downhill event. Medals were rare in the next few years. Still, the French had faith in her. She took part in three Olympics and would have been a probable choice for the Olympics at Salt Lake City next year. She became a world champion in February at

St Anton in Austria, winning the coveted title known as the super-G. The G stands for giant slalom, the winding course that takes its name from the Norwegian word for a sloping track. Miss Cavagnoud was the first Frenchwoman to win a world skiing title for 17 years.

Hurtling down a mountain on skis is the fastest a human being can travel on land without a mechanical aid. The record is 248km per hour (154mph). When slaloming in the super-G you go at less than half that speed, but it is still a heart-stopping way to travel as you manoeuvre the twists and turns. Unlike recreational skiers, who tend to slither at turns, class skiers seek to check the slide to keep up their speed. On her last fatal run Miss Cavagnoud was travelling at such a speed that she just could not avoid a crash. There was something in her make-up that demanded speed. When she wasn’t on the slopesshe was roaring along mountain roads on her powerful motor-bike. “Twice I have given myself a fright,” she recalled, but she would not give up biking. Hunter Thompson, an American writer, put the urge like this:

Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.

Miss Cavagnoud did feel fear. Considering the risks involved, there have been relatively few deaths on the slopes: 11 in first-class skiing over the past 30 years. Ulrike Maier of Austria was the previous woman skier to die on the slopes: she broke her neck in 1994 when she hit a post. But many skiers are badly injured. Miss Cavagnoud dreaded ending up in a wheelchair. But even more, she said, she dreaded doing badly. As some actors do, she had psychiatric help to relax her for her next performance. If there was something of an actor in Régine Cavagnoud, she saw the admiring people of La Clusaz as her audience. They elected her to the local council. When she won her world title they wanted her to give up competing. She said she thought she would soon. “I really want to have children,” she said.