The former French Olympic skiing champion and entrepreneur Jean Vuarnet has died at the age of 83, his family has announced.
Vuarnet, who gave his name to a world-famous brand of sunglasses, won gold in the downhill event in the 1960 Winter Olympics in California.
He is credited with inventing an aerodynamic crouch for downhill skiing known as the "egg".
Vuarnet was also the first person to win the event using metal skis.
His aerodynamic ski position has been copied and perfected by generations of skiers, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.
At that competition in California, Vuarnet also wore a new type of anti-glare sunglasses provided for the French team.
Following his win, he agreed a deal with the manufacturer of the glasses permitting them to use his name.
Vuarnet also won bronze in the downhill event in the 1958 World Championships.
He went on to help develop the Avoriaz ski resort, which opened in 1964 as part of the famed Portes du Soleil ski area that links 12 French and Swiss resorts in the Alps.
Vuarnet suffered a personal tragedy in 1995 when his wife and son were involved in ritual killings along with dozens of members of the Order of the Solar Temple cult.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
I had Vuarnet sunglasses, way back in the 80s when they were cool.....
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
Vuarnet suffered a personal tragedy in 1995 when his wife and son were involved in ritual killings along with dozens of members of the Order of the Solar Temple cult.
Gee, that's quite a place to decide to end the story...
Last edited by Lord Jim on Thu Jan 05, 2017 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Guinevere wrote:I had Vuarnet sunglasses, way back in the 80s when they were cool.....
They're not cool anymore?
I just recall them being one of those "in" brands you had to have when you were a teen but they disappeared at some point--- and apparently my memory is just about right -- they were one of corporate sponsors for the 1984 LA Olympics, and then left the US market by the 90s.
Vive Vuarnet! The icon of French eyewear, introduced in 1960, is making a comeback in the U.S. with the Vuarnet 002, a style not seen in these parts since the 1990s.
After the company's founding by French opticians Roger Pouilloux and Joseph Hatchiguian and marketing by downhill skier Jean Vuarnet, the rounded cat-eye frames with mineral-tinted lenses reached huge peaks in popularity. Donned by sporty fashionistas from the ski set of the French Alps to neon-clad beach volleyball teams in Southern California, the Vuarnet 002 shades seemed to be everywhere in the second half of the last century.
In 1984 Vuarnet was an official sponsor of the Los Angeles Olympic Games, and vintage five-ring branded Olympic Vuarnet sunglasses are still a hot commodity on eBay, where they fetch as much as $399.
But just more than a decade after the L.A. Olympics, Vuarnet stopped distributing in the U.S., and by 2000 production of the onetime bestselling 002 style came to a halt.
Not just the "cat eye" lens, but also the glacier glasses were big back then (apparently even with people who had never and would be near a glacier)!
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
Guinevere wrote:
Not just the "cat eye" lens, but also the glacier glasses were big back then (apparently even with people who had never and would be near a glacier)!
I wondered where they went, especially the cat eyes. It was always a mystery how those ugly Oakleys took off and replaced the stylish Vuarnets!
Vuarnet suffered a personal tragedy in 1995 when his wife and son were involved in ritual killings along with dozens of members of the Order of the Solar Temple cult.
Gee, that's quite place to decide to end the story...
Definitely, we need a Paul Harvey-like rest of the story.
I was prompted to do some online research into that tragedy and was thus reminded of the story, which I now recall seeing on the news when it happened. Sick cult murders/suicides, including the brutal stabbing to death by a wooden stake of a just months-old baby.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
