26 replies to this topic

[William Hunt]

Davina Galica was a four time Winter Olympian for Great Brittain (downhill skier) , twice as a captain. Apparently she still holds the downhill skiing record and was awarded an MBE for that ! I didn't know that. Just found out about it today.

I know that there are numerous F1 drivers who are great at skiing. Drivers that come to mind are Jacques Villeneuve of Patrick Tambay for example.

[rtcoman]

Maybe slightly off topic, but I remember a Japanese TV serial cartoon about motorsport. It was produced in the second half of the 70`s and the main character, a racing driver, takes a break from racing for a while and moves to Alaska (?) where he discovers that the transition from motor-racing to skiing is something natural, the tworequiring a set of similar qualities. IIRC, he also has an affair with a female skiing instructor who, later, enters Formula 1 herself.

[William Hunt]

This may sound silly but : what does 'IIRC' mean ?

English is not my mother tongue and I'm not familiar with every abreviation used on the internet.

[Runner]

Originally posted by William Hunt
This may sound silly but : what does 'IIRC' mean ?

English is not my mother tongue and I'm not familiar with every abreviation used on the internet.

IIRC = If I remember correctly

[Wolf]

William, 'tis one of many abbreviations like BTW (By The Way), AFAIK (As Far As I Know)... More extensive list can be found here.

[William Hunt]

TFTT Wolf that's very kind of U. TFS

BTW I use BTW quit a lot but IIRC and AFAIK and many other from that link are new to me.

TYVM, William.

[Marcor]

Bob Wollek was a good skier before he started motor racing.

Jean-Claude Killy, one of the best French skier (several Olympic gold medallist in 1968 at Grenoble) took part succesfully in some Targa Florio.

Just two examples...

[FEV]

Another great French skier who did some racing was Henri Oreiller who won medals at the 1948 (?) Olympics and later raced in F.Junior and Sportscars. He lost his life in racing IIRC. Ex-World Cup winner Luc Alphand does more and more racing these last years. He even formed his team and was at LM last year. About Wolllek, it was his dissapointement of not being selected in the French Olympic team that decided him to go racing - their loss our gain !. But as Marc said there are many more...

[Jim Thurman]

The Mahre brothers (Phil and Steve), U.S. Olympic and World Cup ski standouts, raced Sports 2000 and one of them ran one of the IMSA Sedan classes in the late 80's/early 90's.


Jim Thurman

[Frank de Jong]

And how can we forget Konrad Bartelsky (IIRC), Candian skier and Sports 2000 driver in the Netherlands.

[Geza Sury]

Originally posted by William Hunt
Davina Galica was a four time Winter Olympian for Great Brittain (downhill skier) , twice as a captain

Wasn't her name DIVINA, not DAVINA?

[BRG]

Originally posted by Geza Sury
Wasn't her name DIVINA, not DAVINA?

No, definitely Davina. I chatted her up once at a party - but got nowhere (the story of my life ).

I seem to remember that Andrea De Caesaris had been a member of the Italian junior ski-team.

And vice versa, Franz Klammer (THE ski racer of all time!!) tried his hand at touring cars after he retired.

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Off topic, but I have seen swedish biggest alpine stars, Ingemar Stenmark and Pernilla Wiberg practicing a speedway-bike. Both were amazingly quick and adopted the "right style" after a few laps only.
Must be a connection between alpine skiing and motorsport. Speed, balance etc.

Stefan

[BRG]

THANK YOU, Stefan!!! What relief! I have been trying to remember Ingemar Stenmark's name all through the Winter Olympics with no success. Such a brilliant slalom skier, but my memory had been completely wiped about his name. It must be old age...

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the men's slalom on Saturday - Britain's first ever ski-ing medal! Although I doubt if Baxter will ever challenge Stenmark in the record books!

[William Hunt]

Wasn't Jacques Villeneuve so talented that he could have been an olympic skier ?

[Rainer Nyberg]

Riccardo Patrese was an accomplished alpine skier. In his teens, he was close to beeing named for the Italian alpine-ski team.

I am with Geza, I am quite sure she is calling herself Divina...!

Proof enough ?

[William Hunt]

I'm quite sure that she used both names. Divina is used in Italy and Davina in the UK. But I've seen both names on her car and overall.

[William Hunt]

Wasn't Tambay part of the French skiing team ?

[McRonalds]

Originally posted by Geza Sury

Wasn't her name DIVINA, not DAVINA?

O - spellings!

That point has been discussed in this forum so often - I think I have to tell a personal word about it:

If you're 'blessed' with a name difficult to understand/spell/write (like myself for example - but I won't tell now) you can always wonder what comes out when your name is written by someone else. At some point it's all the same - and you're quite happy if at least you recieve your mail.

So I think: the main thing is we know about whom we're talking - correct spelling is not always necessary. I have given up long time ago... :

[William Hunt]

But which name is written on her passport ?

[McRonalds]

P.S.: Spellings! Don't ask me how often I have read names like this:

Ron Bucknam or Mark Donahue...

[Gerr]

Don't overlook Teo Fabi. Not FI,but Buddy and Jaques Lazier were US Ski Team material.

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Frank de Jong
And how can we forget Konrad Bartelsky (IIRC), Candian skier and Sports 2000 driver in the Netherlands.

Konrad Bartelsky is BRITISH if you don't mind ...

And not in any way Canadian at all, unlike those two great British sportsmen Lennox Lewis and Greg Rusedski, not to mention our 1936 Olympic Ice Hockey team ....

[BRG]

Originally posted by Rainer Nyberg
I am with Geza, I am quite sure she is calling herself Divina...!

Damn! And the phone number she gave me didn't work either. It was a definite brush-off... If it wasn't so long ago, I'd be really upset ;)

[Doug Nye]

Piero Taruffi was a most accomplished skiier - on a lesser level, non competitive, so were Dick Seaman and especially C.E.C. 'Charlie' Martin.

[Vitesse2]

TP Cholmondeley-Tapper is alleged to have turned down an Auto Union test and gone skiing instead...

[Rainer Nyberg]

If we talk cross-country skiing then multiple olympic champion Gunde Svan raced a Toyota Celica in the Euro Rally Cross Championship during the early 1990s. His compatriot and also a member of the Swedish ski team, Torgny Mogren, has also the motorsports bug. He does on occasion take to rallying. He is competing in a Saab 9-3 Turbo this year.