James Couttet

James Couttet
nation	France
birthday	July 18, 1921
place of birth	Chamonix ,  France
size	168 cm
Weight	67 kg
date of death	November 13, 1997
Place of death	Chamonix ,  France
Career
discipline	Alpine skiing ski jumping
society	Chamonix Ski Club
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 1 × World Cup medals 1 × 1 × 1 ×
Participants in alpine skiing  winter Olympics silver 1948 St. Moritz slalom bronze 1948 St. Moritz combination  Alpine World Ski Championships gold 1938 Engelberg Departure silver 1950 Aspen Departure bronze 1950 Aspen Giant slalom

James Couttet (born July 18, 1921 in Chamonix , Haute-Savoie , † November 13, 1997 ibid) was a French skier who was active in alpine skiing and ski jumping . In the years before and after World War II, he was considered one of the best skiers in the world.

Career

Already at the age of 17, Couttet became world champion in the downhill in Engelberg in 1938 . His sporting development was interrupted by the war. At the first major Alpine event after the end of the war, the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz in February 1948 , at which he was the flag bearer (Porte-drapeau), Couttet was able to build on his earlier successes. In the slalom he won the silver medal behind the Swiss Edy Reinalter ; in the combination he came third. Two years later he won two more medals at the World Ski Championships in Aspen : silver in the downhill and bronze in the giant slalom .

In his career, Couttet was French champion nine times . For four victories in the Arlberg-Kandahar races (1939, 1947, 1948, 1950) he was the only ski racer alongside Karl Schranz to be awarded the Diamond Arlberg-Kandahar Star twice.

After completing his active career, he trained the French men's team in preparation for the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo and coached the French national ski team at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo .

Together with the French cable car designer Denis Creissels, Couttet developed the Téléscaphe , an underwater cable car that operated in Marseille for a year .

Couttet was married to the ski racer Lucienne Schmith-Couttet .

Web links

• James Couttet in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• James Couttet in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• James Couttet in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Column 1. «Training France's Alpines» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 14, 1951, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).