Audrey Sale-Barker
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing  United Kingdom
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| Women's Alpine skiing | ||
| World Championships | ||
 |
1932 Cortina d'Ampezzo | Slalom |
Audrey Florice Durrell Drummond Sale-Barker (1903 in Chelsea, London – 21 December 1994 in Dorset, England), nicknamed Wendy, was a British alpine skiing champion and prominent aviator. She was born into high society, the daughter of children's writer Lucy Sale-Barker and Maurice Drummond-Sale-Barker. After her marriage to George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk in 1947, she became Audrey Douglas-Hamilton, Countess of Selkirk.
An inaugural member of the Ladies' Ski Club organized by Sir Arnold Lunn, she was the first female skier to win the diamond badge at the prestigious Arlberg-Kandahar race, signifying at least four top-three finishes in the combined race. She won the combined title at the second A-K race, held in St. Anton in 1929.
American skier Alice Kiare described Sale-Barker as a striking figure:
Audrey Sale-Barker made an extraordinary impression on everybody who saw her ski. Very tall, extremely slim, her height accentuated by trousers so long that they touched the ground around her boots, pale honey-coloured hair, a vague dreamy expression, and when she skied I can only describe her as a sleep-walker. She stood very erect, with both arms slightly lifted in front of her, she had little or no reserve strength in a race, gave everything she had, and often collapsed and fainted when a race was over. She had incredible courage, and I will never forget seeing her take the last steep slope of Dengert at the finish of the 1928 Arlberg-Kandahar absolutely straight, with lifted arms like someone in a trance.
In 1929 a letter was received inviting the British to send skiers to compete in an event in Poland. The organisers in Zacopane were surprised to find that the British team included Sale-Barker and another LSC founder member Doreen Elliott. Elliott and Sale=Barker were allowed to join the sking competition and the sjiers were impressed when they finished 13th and 14th.
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