Vale Christine Davy

Snow Australia is saddened by the loss of Christine Davy, Australia’s first female winter Olympian.

Introduced to skiing after World War II at the old Hotel Kosciuszko by her parents, both members of the Ski Club of Australia, Davy took to the sport quickly. There were not many ski lifts at the time and only a few competitions were held, but her competitive nature immediately started fueling her success in alpine skiing. Still only a teenager, in the early '50s she participated in the Inter-Dominions Championships in New Zealand, the only international competition available to Australian skiers at the time, apart from the Olympics.

Davy went on to dominate the Australian National Championships in the '50s, winning all Downhill and Slalom titles from 1953 to 1960. Her domestic success led to an Olympic selection and, for the first time in her career, she finally managed to get some proper coaching under Austrian coach Leonhard Erharter, the coach appointed to the Australian team. Still, her first Olympics nearly didn’t happen: on the way to Europe by ship she came down with a case of chickenpox, suffering through the journey but eventually making it to Italy.

After the Games Davy raced in Europe, winning in downhill and slalom events, and kept on building her international experience in North America towards the 1960 Games. Just as in 1956, she was still the only woman on the Australian Alpine Skiing team at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympic Games.

After retiring from skiing, Davy became a pioneering female airline pilot. She began flying as a hobby, but her career took off in 1963 when she was offered a position as a pilot with Connellan Airways, in Alice Springs. Christine became the first Australian woman to hold a 1st Class Air Transport Pilot's Licence and the first Western woman in the world to become a Check Captain. For her work in aviation she was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1970. In 1974 she became the first woman in Australia to be employed as a pilot of a passenger airline, Connair, based in Alice Springs.

Snow Australia extends its sincere condolences to Christine’s family, friends, teammates and all who knew her.

Vale Christine Davy.