He won a bronze medal in the downhill at the World Championships in 1958 at Bad Gastein, before winning gold in the same event in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley.

In 1995, his wife Edith Bonlieu, a fellow Olympian, and their son Patrick both died in a mass murder-suicide of members of the Order of the Solar Temple.

Jean Raoul Célina André Vuarnet was born in Le Bardo, Tunisia, on 18 January 1933.

[1][2] During this period he skied competitively and was romantically involved with Christiane Veillon, a French Canadian woman two years his junior who he met at a dance.

[4][5] The high point of Vuarnet's racing career came at age 27 at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, where he won the gold medal in the downhill.

[7] For this win he used the position he had invented, "the egg" (French: l'œuf), now known as The Tuck, a lower stance in which he squatted down, back parallel to the slope and leaning down, to reduce drag from wind in a bid to increase his speed.

[1][5] He was also the first to win an Olympic gold medal on metal skis, versus the standard wooden ones, which were given to him only a few days before the race.

[2] Their marriage grew strained as his success increased, and Edith joined the notorious Order of the Solar Temple group, along with Patrick.

[1] Following their deaths, Vuarnet wrote a book about the case, Ils ont tué ma femme et mon fils, lit.

[14] On the 50th anniversary of his Olympic win, a glass statue of Vuarnet was unveiled in his home town of Morzine, in the "Tuck" position.