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[Jacques]

Je viens de lire une nouvelle bien triste. Les plus jeunes ne connaissent peut-être pas Greg Athans, mais pour les plus vieux il était un grand champion tant sur la neige que sur l’eau.
http://www.waterski-...ws_e.htm#200806

PASSING OF WATER SKIING GREAT GREG ATHANS
Aug 9, 2006
Well before his time
By J.P. Squire
Copyright KelownaDailyCourier.ca
Wednesday, August 9, 2006, 12:32 AM
Greg Athans, a world-class skier on both snow and water, and a member of a Kelowna family of accomplished athletes, has died. He was 51.
Following an illustrious career on the slopes and in the water, Athans became a professional photographer in Vancouver. In recent years, he suffered from severe diabetes, which family members said caused his death.
“I spoke to him before I left for Europe a couple of weeks ago, and he seemed in reasonably good spirits,” said his brother, George, who now lives in Montreal. “He had just finished his last official assignment for Wakefest in Kelowna. He went well before his time.”
One of the things George admired about his brother was that everything Greg did was self-taught. “Although he dropped out of university, he was smarter than all of us in his ability to grasp ideas and succeed at anything he tried,” George said. “He had a good set of values and morals. Everything he did, he tried his best.”
His favorite memories of his brother date back to when all three Athans boys were children. When he was very little, he was full of life, a very mischievous little kid, always playing little tricks. He always did things his way; he marched to his own drummer.”
George has a long list of Greg¹s accomplishments, which include four world championships in freestyle skiing, two world championships in moguls, 20 World Cup victories and 15 national water-ski championships between 1976 and 1982. He was third in the world in water-skiing in 1980.
“When he started in 1976-77, he won the overall mogul and ballet titles and four cars in one weekend,” said George. “He skied in the U.S., Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, pretty much around the world.”
Greg was also the first athlete to win gold at both the Canada Summer Games, for water-skiing, and Canada Winter Games, for downhill skiing. His parents, Dr. George and Irene Athans, set the benchmark for their sons. Dr. Athans was a British Empire Games champion and Canadian champion in diving. He competed at the Commonwealth Games and represented Canada at two Olympics, his son said.
Irene was a world-class athlete in her own right in synchronized swimming and breaststroke. She once held a share of a world record in relay swimming. George, the eldest of the three sons, became a national water-ski champion at 13, and went on to win three world water-ski titles and induction to the Order of Canada and Canada¹s Sports Hall of Fame.
Gary was a junior Canadian champion in the water and on the snow at age 15. He was selected to represent Canada internationally in both sports, but opted for skiing downhill for Canada for the next eight years, including representing his country at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Gary still lives in Kelowna and works as a real-estate agent.
Greg leaves behind two daughters, Carly and Zoe. “A private and significant ceremony will be planned to bring Greg back to Kelowna where it all started,” said George.

[wolverine]

Oui il était bien connu pour son apport important au développement du ski freestyle. Il a écrit un livre (que j'ai encore) sur les techniques de ski acrobatique (sauts et ski ballet). Dommage de mourir à 51 ans, si jeune.
Une autre grande perte pour le ski, comme Doug Coombs lui dans le domaine freeride big mountain.
Ajoutons Marc-André Béliveau (Québécois) paralysé, le portrait du sport en souffre un peu.

[Mymi]

C'est vraiment très dommage