STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Michel Rudigoz, who imbued Sun Valley with his love of good ski racing and good French cuisine, passed away this week at his home north of Ketchum.

Rudigoz, who was 81, was one of the most successful U.S. Ski Team coaches of all time.

He led one of the U.S. Ski Team’s most successful women’s teams from 1980-84 with the likes of Olympic gold and silver medalists Debbie Armstrong and Cristin Cooper. The team won the Nation’s Cup during his tenure, which many skiers consider the pinnacle of success.

Michel Rudigoz, wearing the white jacket, was inducted into the Sun Valley Ski Hall of Fame alongside Jeanette Burr Johnson, Hans Muehlegger, Jenny Busdon, Annie and Bill Vanderbilt, Charley Fench, Ntala Skinner and Pete Patterson.

Rudigoz also coached a U.S. Men’s Ski Team boasting Andy Mill, Phil Mahre and Sun Valley’s Pete Patterson during the 1978 World Championships.

Muffy Davis, who won a fistful of Paralympic medals racing on a monoski, said Rudigoz fueled her desire to race when he told her she had talent.

“To get a compliment from Michel meant everything—it was huge,” she said.  “I told my Mom when I was 8 that God made me a ski racer, that I was going to the Olympics. To have Michel say what he said just fueled my desire to go out there and win even more.”

Rudigoz grew up in Lyon, France, the capital of the Gauls during the Roman Empire, the birthplace of the cinematograph and a culinary capital of France.

Michel Rudigoz and his wife Ellie Ellis stood in front of a hunter’s camp set up in the Sun Valley Inn during the SVSEF’s 2023 Wild Game Dinner.

He came to the United States after meeting Sun Valley ski coach Lane Monroe and fell in love with the mountain and the community. He started coaching the U.S. Men’s Alpine team in 1978, which then featured the brothers Phil and Steve Mahre and Sun Valley Pete Patterson.

And he led the U.S. Women’s Team to the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo where Debbie Armstrong won a gold and Sun Valley’s Christin Cooper a silver medalist. The team also boasted Sun Valley downhill racer Maria Maricich, who had a strong year that year.

After the success of the 1984 Winter Olympics, Rudigoz opened a French restaurant in Ketchum named Chez Michel and began coaching for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.

“Michel Rudigoz, Lane Monroe Jack Simpson and Jim Savaria were really the forefathers of SVSEF,” said Pat Savaria.

Michel Rudigoz, left, joined Scott McGrew, Doran Key, Lane Monroe and others who have received the Jack Simpson Dedicated Coaches Award in 2023 during the SVSEF Wild Game Dinner.

Indeed, Rudigoz was all-in with the Sun Valley Ski Foundation.

When the SVSEF organized its first Wild Game Dinner, Rudigoz cooked the venison and other wild game that coaches and skiers’ parents brought to his restaurant.

“We probably had about a hundred people that first year,” he recounted. “It became famous. Everyone wanted to attend.”

In 1994 he brought the Christiania restaurant, a historic restaurant reputed to have ties to the Detroit mob when it opened in 1937. Not only did it offer high stakes gambling for high rollers like Hollywood producer Daryl Zannuck but it served as the setting for Ernest Hemingway’s last supper.

Michel Rudigoz offered a toast several months ago as he turned the keys to his restaurant over to new owners. PHOTO: John Boydston

Rudigoz renamed it Michel’s Christiania, filled it with Olympic memorabilia, including an Emmy he won for his alpine skiing broadcasting, and served French cuisine.

He also hosted the opening cocktail receptions for the annual Janss Pro-Am fundraisers for the SVSEF, each time making an enthusiastic speech for the pro racers and amateurs who came together in lavish costumes to raise scholarship money for the kids.

He also had effusive praise for SVSEF alum like Kaitlyn Farrington, who won a gold medal in Snowboard Halfpipe at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

“She cost me two bottles of champagne, but so did Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin,” said Rudigoz, who popped the cork for the U.S. gold medal winners at his Christiania Restaurant.

Rudigoz only retired from the restaurant this past year.

Before he did, Sun Valley Resort honored him by naming part of its 2025 World Cup Finals course on Bald Mountain “Rudi’s Roll.”

Rudigoz leaves behind his widow Ellie Ellis, whom he met through his restaurant. He also leaves behind two sons—Biche and Franck Rudigoz. The family hopes to have a community celebration for Michel later this summer.