Background
Born in Paris, the son of Léon Oreiller, of Italian origin, and Marguerite Favre, from Savoie.
alpine skier motorcycle racer racecar driver
Born in Paris, the son of Léon Oreiller, of Italian origin, and Marguerite Favre, from Savoie.
After the liberation of Paris he fought in the Alps in an elite winter combat unit of the French Army. He also took the gold medal in the combined event, and the bronze medal in the special slalom. He missed one of his medal ceremonies because he was playing accordion in a local bar, and received his medal a week later.
He competed in the 1950 World Championships at Aspen and finished fourth in the new event, the giant slalom.
At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Oreiller was 14th in the downhill and 16th in the giant slalom. Obsessed with speed, Oreiller retired from ski racing in 1952 at age 26 to take up motor racing.
Ten years later, he had a racing car accident which took his life on 7 October 1962. A tire blowout at 100 mph (160 km/h) caused his Ferrari to flip at the Linas-Montlhéry autodrome and he later died at Hôpital Cochin in Paris.
The Ferrari 250 GTO, in which he lost his life, sold at auction for a world record $38.1million (£2285 million), in August 2014.
Best result: 2nd place in slalom 1947 a Mürren and 1950 a Mürren. Lyon-Carbonniere Rallye in 1960 and 1961.
Oreiller was a member of Section Eclairuers Skieurs, a specialist skiing section of the French Resistance during World World War World War II