Ophélie David (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Rácz, born 6 July 1976) is a retired French freestyle skier who specialized in

ski cross Ski cross is a skiing competition which incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle skiing with courses which include big-air jumps and high-banked turns. In spite of the fact that it is a timed racing event, it is often con ...

, an event in which she has won a world championship and four consecutive Winter X Games, as well as having previously been ranked number one in the world. David began her career as an alpine skier, competing for Hungary at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

in both the slalom and the combined, both of which she failed to finish. David was able to compete for Hungary because her father, János Rácz, held Hungarian citizenship and had competed for that country in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subseq ...

. David qualified to compete in the inaugural Winter Olympic Ski Cross race in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. She was considered the odds-on favorite for gold due to her long-time dominance in the discipline, but crashed out in the quarterfinals and was placed ninth. She finished in fourth position at

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

after she fell in the final.

Personal life

David grew up on the island of

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

, where her retired parents still reside. She is married to Phil David and they have a daughter named Lilou. The family is very close, making frequent use of

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

while David traveled for competitions. Her hobbies include recreational gymnastics, basketball, windsurfing, traveling, painting, books, and cinema. She is also a competitive mountain biker, her biggest win being the 2008 Megavalanche race. During the summer, she is involved with sports camps for children, and during the winter is a ski instructor. She speaks French and English.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:David, Ophelie 1976 births Living people French female freestyle skiers Olympic alpine skiers for Hungary Olympic freestyle skiers for France Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics X Games competitors People from Cucq Sportspeople from Pas-de-Calais French people of Hungarian descent 21st-century French sportswomen 20th-century French sportswomen