Carole Merle

Carole Merle (French pronunciation: [ka.ʁɔl mɛʁl]; born 24 January 1964) is a former French Alpine skier. A specialist of Giant Slalom and Super-G, she won 22 World Cup races, 6 World Cup season titles and 1 World Championship gold medal.

Carole Merle
Alpine skier
DisciplinesSuper-G, Giant slalom
Downhill, Combined
Born (1964-01-24) 24 January 1964
Le Sauze, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
Retired1994
Olympics
Teams4 - (1984, 1988, 1992, 1994)
Medals1
World Championships
Teams4 - (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993)
Medals3 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons13 - (19821994)
Wins22 - (12 SG, 10 GS)
Overall titles0 - (2nd in 1992, 3rd in 1993)
Discipline titles6 - (4 SG, 2 GS)

Skiing career

A native of Le Sauze, a ski resort of Enchastrayes commune where her parents ran a hotel, Merle learned to ski at a very young age. She took part in her first competition as a six-year-old, and made her World Cup debut at 18. On 23 January 1983, she took her first World Cup podium with a third-place finish in Giant Slalom at St. Gervais. But it took another few years for her to reach her full potential.[1]

Her first World Cup win came on 6 January 1988 at Tignes. The following season saw her bag the World cup title in Super-G, finishing 4 points ahead of 1988 Olympic champion Sigrid Wolf. Merle went on to win the Super-G season title 4 years in a row (1989–1992), a feat only equalled in later years by Katja Seizinger of Germany (1993–1996) and Lindsey Vonn of the USA (2009–2012). In addition, Merle won the Giant Slalom World Cup in 1992 and 1993. These two same years, she finished 2nd (behind Austria's Petra Kronberger) and 3rd in the World Cup overall standings.[1]

At the 1989 World Championships in Vail she won a silver medal in the Giant Slalom, two years later at the 1991 World Championships in Saalbach she won another medal and at the 1993 World Championships in Morioka she finally won the gold medal in the Giant Slalom. At the 1992 Olympics in Albertville she won a silver medal in the Super-G event.

Later life

Merle retired at the end of the 1994 ski season. During her career, she had earnings of more than 20 million French francs, which an uncle was managing on her behalf. In 1997, she made headlines when she publicly announced she had lost everything and had accumulated more than 70 million in debts, accusing her uncle of mismanaging her fortune.[2]

She later settled away from the ski slopes, in a Camargue farmhouse, to pursue her passion for horses. In a 2012 interview for French newspaper Le Dauphiné libéré, she claimed she had not skied for at least six years, but added she would never miss a ski World Cup on TV.[3]

World Cup results

Season standings

  • 6 titles – (4 SG, 2 GS)
SeasonAgeOverallSuper-GGiant
slalom
DownhillCombine
19821871-38-26
19831938-1431-
19842028-10-24
19852158-27--
19862240311228-
19872360-23--
19882419-624-
198925416410
19902651710-
19912751174-
1992282118-
1993293317-
1994302024853-

Race victories

  • 22 wins – (12 SG, 10 GS)
  • 44 podiums, 88 top tens
Season Date Location Race
19886 January 1988 Tignes, FranceGiant Slalom
198926 November 1988 Schladming, AustriaSuper-G
14 January 1989   Grindelwald, SwitzerlandSuper-G
20 January 1989 Tignes, FranceSuper-G
199010 February 1990 Méribel, FranceSuper-G
11 February 1990Super-G
10 March 1990 Stranda, NorwayGiant Slalom
14 March 1990 Klövsjö, SwedenGiant Slalom
16 March 1990 Åre, SwedenSuper-G
19919 February 1991 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GermanySuper-G
24 February 1991 Furano, JapanSuper-G
199215 December 1991 Santa Caterina, ItalySuper-G
15 January 1992 Hinterstoder, AustriaGiant Slalom
20 January 1992 Piancavallo, ItalieGiant Slalom
27 January 1992 Morzine, FranceGiant Slalom
15 March 1992 Panorama, CanadaSuper-G
19 March 1992   Crans-Montana, SwitzerlandSuper-G
21 March 1992Giant Slalom
19935 January 1993 Maribor, SloveniaGiant Slalom
10 January 1993 Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalieGiant Slalom
28 February 1993   Veysonnaz, SwitzerlandSuper-G
27 March 1993 Åre,SwedenGiant Slalom

References

  1. "Que devient l'ancienne skieuse Carole Merle ?". Télé Loisirs (in French). 5 December 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  2. Froissart, Lionel (18 December 1997). "Après l'or, Carole Merle en panne d'argent". Libération (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  3. Gabai, Gabriel (8 February 2012). "Merle, grandeur nature". Le Dauphiné libéré (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2016.
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