Charles Bozon

Charles Bozon Jr. (15 December 1932 – 7 July 1964) was an alpine ski racer and world champion from France.^[1]

Charles Bozon

Personal information
Born	(1932-12-15)15 December 1932 Chamonix, France
Died	7 July 1964(1964-07-07) (aged 31) Aiguille Verte, France
Occupation	Alpine skier
Skiing career
Disciplines	Downhill, giant slalom slalom, combined
Club	Chamonix
Olympics
Teams	2 – (1956, 1960)
Medals	1 (0 gold)
World Championships
Teams	4 – (1956, 1958, 1960, 1962)       includes Olympics
Medals	4 (1 gold)
Medal record Men's alpine skiing Representing  France Olympic Games 1956 Cortina Combined 1960 Squaw Valley Combined 1960 Squaw Valley Slalom World Championships 1962 Chamonix Slalom

Career

Born in Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, Bozon won a gold medal in the slalom at the 1962 World Championships, held at his hometown of Chamonix in a snowstorm.^[2] Earlier, he had won a bronze medal in the slalom at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California,^[3] and two world championship silver medals in the combined in 1956 and 1960. Bozon suffered fractured vertebra in the giant slalom at the world championships in 1958 and vowed not to compete again.^[4] He did not compete in the Olympics in 1964.^[5]

Death

Bozon died in 1964 at age 31 in a mountain climbing accident near Mont Blanc. He and 13 climbing companions were killed in an avalanche on the Aiguille Verte, a 4,122-metre (13,524 ft) mountain in the Mont Blanc massif.^[6] The climbing party had reached an elevation of about 2,700 m (9,000 ft) when the avalanche occurred.^[5] Bozon's father, Charles, Sr., had died on the same slope in an avalanche in 1938.^[7]

Less than three months earlier, an avalanche in Switzerland claimed the lives of two noted alpine racers, Buddy Werner of the U.S. and Barbi Henneberger of West Germany.^[8]