Good things take time, they say — some take nearly a century, apparently. Last month, the French ski instructor Olga Chappaz finally received France’s highest civilian honor: she was awarded the rank of Officer of the National Order of Merit during a ceremony in Chamonix, France. What makes this so special is not only that Chappaz was once told that ski instruction was “not a woman’s job,” but that the famous ski instructor is 104 years old.
For the ceremony Chappaz returned to the ski school instructors’ room where those infamous words were once uttered. Unthinkable today, but eight decades ago in 1945, when the 23-year-old was hoping to become the country’s only second female ski instructor, she was met with a wall of resistance. “It was not easy as a woman. We were told that it was not a job for women,” she recalled.
She received the award and customary medal from Guy Périllat, a former world champion and two-time Olympic medalist in alpine skiing. The ceremony recognized what Sports Minister Marina Ferrari described as Chappaz’s “exceptional career” and remarkable legacy in French skiing.
Chappaz was born in 1922 in Chamonix as the daughter of a French mother and a Swiss father, who ran a hotel in the area. In 1941, she married Gilbert Chappaz, who was also a ski instructor as well as a guide and most coached the French ski teams at the Olympic Games in Oslo in 1952 and Cortina in 1956.
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Chappaz began her career in 1945 when she became only the second approved female ski instructor in France, after Georgette Thiollière. At the time, women were rare in ski instruction. In 1949, she joined the national ski team together with Georgette’s sister Suzanne Thiollière, and participated in several races until 1952. Chappaz realized that she enjoyed teaching skiing more than competing and focussed on her career as ski instructor. She first taught in Val-d’Isère before moving to Alpe d’Huez, where she was responsible for children’s instruction. In the 1980s, she developed the “snowflake” or “flocon” system, which is used at French ski schools to this day to mark the progression of young beginner skiers.
Now she has received France’s highest civilian honor after a lifetime dedicated to teaching and developing the ski school industry in France. “It’s a recognition that I appreciate,” Chappaz said several days later from her home in Chamonix. After more than 80 years, it is certainly a recognition that was overdue for this trailblazer for women in ski instruction
