History
The company was founded in 1907 by Abel Rossignol as a textile and ski manufacturer. Rossignol, a committed skier, used his carpentry skills to make a pair of skis out of solid wood. In 1937, Émile Allais of France became triple world champion on Rossignol Olympic 41 skis.
When Laurent Boix Vives bought the company in 1956, the company only focused on skiing equipment and began to sell them worldwide. Rossignol had a breakthrough during the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, USA, when Jean Vuarnet of France won the downhill on Allais 60s, the world's first all-metal skis.
In 1964, Rossignol released the Strato, the first fiberglass ski.
In the 1970s, Rossignol began selling in the U.S., launching its first Nordic skis and soon became the world's largest ski manufacturer. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Rossignol triumphed winning six out of ten gold medals in alpine events.
In 1990, Rossignol launched a product line of alpine ski boots, as well as developing a bindings range and soon after moved into snowboards and mountain clothing.
Athletes using Rossignol products won at both the Winter Olympic games in Albertville and in Lillehammer.
Alberto Tomba of Italy, the dominant technical skier of the late 1980s and 1990s, raced on Rossignol skis.
Rossignol is the French word for nightingale.
| Discipline | Athlete |
|---|---|
| Freestyle | Mike Hopkins |
| Olivier Meynet | |
| Xavier Bertoni | |
| Sage Cattabriga | |
| Lynsey Dyer | |
| Manu Gaidet | |
| Kattia Griffiths | |
| Andreas Håtveit | |
| JF Houle | |
| Ian Mcintosh | |
| Kevin Rolland | |
| Kye Petersen | |
| Dan Treadway | |
| Alpine | Pierrick Bourgeat |
| John Clarey | |
| Didier Défago | |
| Gauthier De Tessieres | |
| Jean-Baptiste Grange | |
| Mattias Hargin | |
| Werner Heel | |
| Jan Hudec | |
| Christof Innerhofer | |
| Mike Janyk | |
| Lars Elton Myhre | |
| Manuel Osborne-Paradis | |
| Alessanrdo Roberto | |
| Jean-Philippe Roy | |
| Matik Skube | |
| Adrien Theaux | |
| Stépane Tissot | |
| Silvan Zurbriggen | |
| Brigitte Acton | |
| Fränzi Aufdenblatten | |
| Anne-Sophie Barthet | |
| Nkie Bent | |
| Marion Bertrand | |
| Catherine Borghi | |
| Stacey Cook | |
| Ana Drev | |
| Allison Forsyth | |
| Maria Pietilä Holmner | |
| Jessica Kelley | |
| Jessica Lindell-Vikarby | |
| Christina Lustenberger | |
| Tina Maze | |
| Urska Rabic | |
| Petra Robnik | |
| Geneviève Simard | |
| Vanessa Vidal | |
| Kathrin Wilhelm | |
| Tessa Worley | |
| Veronika Zuzulova | |
| Snowboard | Jonas Emery |
| Mathhieu Crepel | |
| Kjersti Buaas | |
| Xavier De Le Rue | |
| Jeremy Jones | |
| Wyatt Caldwell | |
| Beji Ritche | |
| Doriane Vidal | |
| Erin Valvarde |
Read more about this topic: Skis Rossignol
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own time refuse to accept.... For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)