Published September 25, 1999 06:15PM
Swiss Sensation
Face Shots
Francine Moreillon’s
role as stunt double for Electra in the new James Bond movie,
The World Is Not Enough,
isn’t nearly as impressive as her debut on the pro-freeskiing circuit. Working full-time behind a desk just two seasons ago, the former PR flack from Coppet, Switzerland, never expected that her career would evolve from promoting skiing events to winning them, from managing a pro team to becoming one of its stars. That’s not to mention jumping out of helicopters on skis over the glaciers of Chamonix with 007 hot on her tail.
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In 1997, while Moreillon was working at a freeskiing event in Chamonix, the judges saw her skiing and asked why she wasn’t competing. The following January, she was invited to compete in the European Freeskiing Championships, an event she was promoting for Swatch. Her surprising off-the-couch win plus a subsequent victory at the World Extreme Skiing Championships (WESC) in Valdez, Alaska, made her the newest sensation of the freeskiing world.
Moreillon’s meteoric rise to the winner’s podium was enough to land her the film job on blind faith. “I didn’t even go to the casting,” she says casually, swirling the melted cheese of homemade pizza around her fork like spaghetti. “A friend told me about the part, so I just called, and the next morning I was shooting.” She’s at home in Verbier for only a few days before shooting resumes in Chamonix. With a laptop computer sitting in front of her and a cell phone ringing, she looks more yuppie than aggro ski chick. “I didn’t even know what freeskiing was a year ago,” she says. “I was a weekend skier, working full-time in an office, promoting this product. Well, I’m the product now.”
Born: May 12, 1969
Home Ski Hill: Verbier, Switzerland
Nickname: Frappadingue (loosely translated, “crazy”)
Fran Club: www.sport-sc.com/moreillon
Notable:
àƒ,à‚• Two-time World Extreme Skiing Champion (1998 and ’99)
àƒ,à‚• First place in Eurosport Madmasters, Europe’s version of the X Games (1999)
àƒ,à‚• Only female skier to be featured in the new Imax movie Extreme.