PARIS (AP) — Olympic skiing champion Jean Vuarnet, who helped pioneer the aerodynamic tuck position for downhill racers but suffered tragedy with the deaths of his wife and son in a doomsday cult murder-suicide, has died, the French Olympic Committee announced Monday. He was 83.
Vuarnet died of a stroke, a statement by the committee said.
The Frenchman won Olympic gold in the downhill at the 1960 winter games in Squaw Valley, California. Rejecting wooden skis, he was the first skier to win an Olympic gold on metal skis.
He was also the only competitor in that race to use the speedier low tuck position, squatting down with knees bent.