Idly Walpoth

Idly Walpoth was born and raised in Zürich and started weekend skiing with her father after having hiked up the mountain. After completion of her nursing studies she joined the Davos Ski Club where she was trained and could then join the Swiss National Ski Team in 1948 where, as a city girl, she faced harsh competition from the mountain girls. Married with one child at the time, her first major victory was at the Swiss Championships in 1950 held in Crans where she came in first place in the downhill event, having finished in second place in the previous year. Later that same year, she won the downhill event in the Arlberg-Kandahar race, where she also placed second in the combination and fourth in the slalom. She was consistently placed in the top three in the slalom and downhill events in the next two Swiss Championships (1951 and 1952), with another first place finish in the downhill event in 1951 at Adelboden.

As one of the top female skiers in Switzerland in the early 1950s, Idly Walpoth earned a place on the Swiss skiing delegation to the 1952 Oslo Olympics. There, she competed in both the downhill and giant slalom events where she placed 12th and 25th respectively. Having usually raced on metallic skis as opposed to the classic wooden skis, unfortunately, prior to her Olympic events, Walpoth’s set of skis were stolen and she was forced to race with lent wooden ones. This was much to her chagrin, though to the liking of the Swiss ski team management, who had previously made the suggestion, which she had refused. After what she saw to be deception at the Olympic games in Oslo, she resigned from the Swiss ski team, but continued skiing until her mid-80’s with her son and four grandchildren.