Esme Mackinnon

Esmé Mackinnon (2 December 1913 – 9 July 1999), known as Muffie, was a British alpine skier from Edinburgh, Scotland, remembered as the first female FIS World Champion in both downhill and slalom. She was a member of the Ladies' Ski Club which was the first skiing club for women.

The editors of Ski magazine called Mackinnon and fellow British skier Audrey Sale-Barker "probably the first women who could really be called racers." Sir Arnold Lunn wrote that she "had the most remarkable record of any lady racer." In addition to her world championships, Mackinnon won the slalom and combined titles at the prestigious Arlberg-Kandahar races in March 1933, in Mürren, Switzerland.

After her skiing success, she married one L. M. Murphy.

1931 World Championships

At the age of 17, Mackinnon received two gold medals at the 1931 World Championships in Mürren, Switzerland, winning both the slalom and the downhill. The races were held in deep, soft snow conditions that presented no problem for Mackinnon.

Mackinnon also won a third, unofficial race at the 1931 Championships, from Grütschalp to Lauterbrunnen. As Mackinnon approached the finish in Lauterbrunnen, she encountered a funeral procession passing by and stopped to wait. The timekeeper stopped the clock and then restarted it when she resumed her run. Some sources maintain that Mackinnon did this out of respect for the departed. According to Lunn's first-hand account, though, Mackinnon stopped out of necessity:

In any case, the Austrian protest was dismissed and Mackinnon was named the winner. Her final time was 10 minutes, 4.4 seconds.