Martial Payot

Martial Payot was the best French Nordic skier in the mid-1920s. He won the French Ski Championship, which, at the time, was roughly equivalent to Nordic combined, in 1926-1928 and was placed third in 1933. He was a licensed mountain guide, technical director of the local ski school, and hotel keeper in Chamonix. Under the military occupation of the area in World War II, Payot was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for “possession of weapons, publications, information or statements likely to have a disastrous influence on the morale of the army and civilian population, participation in a conspiracy …”.