Tania Heald

Before taking up serious skiing, Tania Heald was a very good equestrian rider and took part in the Pony Class at the Richmond Horse Show from the age of four. Fortunately for skiing, she changed her allegiance to the winter sport and was the 1958 and 1959 British junior champion, and, in the second of those years, finished third in the senior British Championship, at the age if 15.

At 17, Heald was the 1961 overall British champion when she also won the downhill and slalom titles. She retained the downhill title in 1962 when she also competed in the Alpine World Ski Championships at Chamonix. Heald won the British downhill title for a third successive year in 1963, and the following year went to the Innsbruck Winter Olympics where she finished 21st in the slalom and 35th in the downhill. Heald never went home empty handed, however, because the former debutante won the Miss Olympia 1964 title presented to her by international photographers covering the Games. Heald married civil engineer Giles Dereham a couple of months after the Innsbruck Games and, following her marriage, announced her retirement from competitive skiing.