Luigi Perenni

Luigi Perenni was born as Alois Prenn, but he Italianized his name in 1934. He learned to ski at an early age and took his talents to the military, where he trained as a marksman. In 1935 he was set to be sent to Africa to fight in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War when he was pulled aside by a commanding officer and told instead to train for the military ski patrol demonstration event at the 1936 Winter Olympics. Spared a deployment, he competed at the Games and won the event alongside Enrico Silvestri, Stefano Sertorelli, and Sisto Scilligo. He won several other skiing awards in subsequent years, but his career was cut short by the onset of World War II. Perenni died in the middle of the conflict, during a mountaineering military exercise, and a military barrack in Courmayeur was later named in his honor.