Rupert Deen

The sporting career of Rupert Deen pales into insignificance compared to his private life. Educated at Harrow School, his finest sporting moment, apart from taking part in the Olympics, was probably playing in the final of the 1956 Public Schools’ Golf Competition, when he was Harrow’s only winner in a 4-1 defeat by Stowe. Deen never needed to work, having inherited his grandfather’s fortune, although he did spend a while as a Lloyds underwriter at the time of his appearance in the 1972 Winter Olympics.

A playboy, Deen was known as the “Last of the Dame Hunters,” whose life was one long party. He was once the subject of the TV documentary “Rupert Goes to Town”, which was about the privileged world of Deen and his friends. He was also once filmed on Yorkshire Television, sat in a bubble-filled bath drinking a Bloody Mary cocktail, served by his butler. Derogatory comments about coalminers, working class people, women, and people in general during the programme led to him having to seek police protection.

Extremely flamboyant, Deen once booked a cruise for friends and then asked them to pay for it, as he did when he threw a lavish party for his 40th birthday, when he asked the invitees to pay £30 a head. Amongst friends of Deen, and his family, was the famous 1960s call-girl Christine Keeler, who regularly visited the Deen household in Southern France. Deen was also the owner of several racehorses, including one called “The Happy Hooker” in the mid-1970s..

Following his death, his friend Algy Cluff commented on Deen’s luge career by saying: “This was entirely suited to Rupert’s requirements, since it is the only sport with the participant lying flat on his back.” Deen himself said, after finishing in last place, after his first two runs at Sapporo in 1972: “Tiring work this tobogganing.”