Willy Stähle — Dutch world water-skiing champion

Competitive career

Stähle specialised in the technical events of competitive water skiing, notably figure (also called trick) skiing and slalom. During her competitive peak she won major international titles and was widely reported at the time as a world-class performer. In 1971 she was named Dutch Sportswoman of the Year, an award that reflected her status as the country's leading watersport athlete.

1972 Olympic demonstration events

Water skiing was included as a demonstration sport at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. At those demonstrations Stähle won a gold medal in the women's figure event and a silver medal in the women's slalom. Because water skiing was a demonstration discipline at that Games, the medals were not part of the official Olympic medal table, but the results brought considerable attention to the sport and to Stähle's performances.

Disciplines and skills

Competitive water skiing is commonly divided into figure (trick), slalom and jump. Figure skiing emphasises a set of choreographed manoeuvres and technical difficulty; slalom challenges the skier to navigate a course of buoys at successively higher speeds or shorter rope lengths; jump measures distance off a ramp. Stähle's strengths were balance, timing and technical control, qualities essential in figure and slalom events.

Legacy and later life

Stähle's success in international competition and at the Olympic demonstrations helped raise the profile of water skiing in the Netherlands and inspired younger athletes in watersports. She is remembered in Dutch sporting histories as one of the country's leading competitors in the discipline during her era. Her passing in August 2015 was announced publicly on 1 September 2015.

Further reading and sources

Basic biographical and sporting records relating to Stähle can be found in national sports archives and Olympic reports. See national sport archives and historical summaries for more detail: Netherlands sports archive, the official report and summaries of the 1972 Olympic demonstrations, contemporary coverage from the Munich Games and contextual material on sport in Germany. Local biographical material and civil records are available from Amsterdam sources.

• Born in Amsterdam, 1954; died 27 August 2015 (death announced 1 September 2015).
• Gold (figure) and silver (slalom) at the 1972 Olympic demonstration events.
• Named Dutch Sportswoman of the Year in 1971.