Christian Pravda

Christian Pravda was the first Austrian Alpine skiing hero. His first major victory was winning the Hahnenkamm downhill in 1947. Pravda competed at the 1948 Winter Olympics but failed to finish the slalom race. In 1951 he won four races on the Hahnenkamm, the first time this was achieved.

That year Pravda also won three Austrian titles in slalom, giant slalom, and combined. At the 1952 Oslo Olympics Pravda won a silver medal in giant slalom and a bronze in downhill. He improved at the 1954 World Championships in Åre, Sweden, winning the downhill and placing second in the combined.

In 1955 Pravda lost his amateur status when he was suspended for serving as a model for ski equipment for a French company. This caused him to miss the 1956 Winter Olympics, and he then settled in the United States. Over the next few years he won numerous events in North America, including several victories at the Harriman Cup at Sun Valley, before turning professional in 1959. He taught skiing in the United States for the next few years, mostly to celebrities, before returning to Austria in the 1970s, where he worked promoting a ski company.