Serge Lang

Born in Alsace, in the eastern part of France, Lang learned to ski on the summits of the smooth Vosges mountains soon after he learned to walk. His father, born in Albertville, in Savoie, was also a passionate skier and enjoyed touring with his son on the snowy fields in France and Switzerland.

In the 1930s, the first official alpine competitions took place in the Alps despite the opposition of the nordic countries. The achievements of the first skiing heroes, such as Emile Allais, Toni Seelos, James Couttet and Rudolf Rominger inspired the teenaged Lang, who also competed in some international races held in Switzerland. In 1938, Serge Lang attended his first World Championships at Engelberg, near Lucerne, and he befriended the young Downhill Champion, James Couttet, who was just 17 years old.

A journalist during World War II, Lang switched his focus to sports in the early 1950s and covered all major skiing events, including all the Olympics until 1994. He also followed mainstream cycling races including the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de Suisse.

It was through cycling that Serge created the idea to promote competition spanning the entire ski season. The final outcome would be determined by the accumulation of individual race performances. He gave it the name "World Cup" — used for the first time in 1966 by the organizers of the football World Championships in England.

Serge Lang presented his project in July 1965 during the Tour de France with the support of the French sports paper L'Equipe. In fact, L'Equipe sponsored a European Cup during the 1965-66 season, which was won by Austria's Karl Schranz and France's Marielle Goitschel.

In August 1966, after intensive discussions about the need to modernize alpine ski racing with top coaches including Bob Beattie of the United States, Honore Bonnet of France and Sepp Sulzberger from Austria, the concept of the new World Cup was presented and accepted by the International Ski Federation (FIS) president Marc Hodler.

World Cup became an official competition sanctioned by the FIS during the Congress at Beyrouth in spring of 1967. With the financial support of the French mineral company Evian, the World Cup was a huge success from the start thanks to the great victories of two charismatic champions, Nancy Greene and Jean Claude Killy. A new era had begun at that moment for the "white sport."

For 20 years, Serge Lang was the driving force behind the World Cup as well as its president - all while maintaining his job as a journalist. His management style was sometimes tough - and he was often called the "Godfather" of the World Cup, but he followed his vision and always acted in the best interest of the sport. He was not a bureaucrat, but a pioneer and his passion never faded.

Since 1961 Serge Lang was the President of the International Ski Writer Association which presents the annual "Golden Ski" to the most remarkable skier of the season. His passion for communication and creativity took him in new directions. Ten years ago he took an active part in the promotion of the new cycling World Cup and, during the last five years, organized with his company, Sportcom, the Swiss stage of the Cycling Cup.

On behalf of the FIS, he began managing a "Legends Tour" of past great champions. In Tignes last October, he personally presented the new program that will take place this winter.

During his career, Lang has written numerous books on skiing and ski racing: He was working on his memoirs when his heart suddenly decided that it had had enough of this crazy life. We will miss him a lot.

His loving son, Patrick Lang