William Gayraud-Hirigoyen (1 May 1898 – 9 December 1962) was a French

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

who competed in

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

in the late 1910s and early 1920s, then moved to

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobslei ...

and

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

in the late 1940s. In rugby, Hirigoyen played in the

Five Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament contes ...

(

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

since 2000) in 1919–20, scoring one try in the event. He played in the Hooker position during his career. Hirigoyen would later serve as a sports official in rugby during the 1920s. Hirigoyen later competed in bobsleigh and skeleton from the mid-1920s to the late 1940s. He won a bronze medal in the four-man bobsleigh event at the 1947 FIBT World Championships in

St. Moritz St. Moritz ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in the administrative region of Maloja in the Swiss ...

. The following year, he finished last among thirteen competitors in the men's skeleton event at the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (; ; ; ) and commonly known as St. Moritz 1948 (; ), were a winter multi-sport event held from 30 January to 8 February 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the ...

in St. Moritz. At those same games, Hirigoyen also finished 12th in the two-man event.

References

1948 bobsleigh two-man results

Scrum.com profile
1898 births 1962 deaths Bobsledders at the 1948 Winter Olympics French male bobsledders French rugby union players French male skeleton racers Skeleton racers at the 1948 Winter Olympics Olympic bobsledders for France Olympic skeleton racers for France 20th-century French sportsmen {{France-rugbyunion-bio-1890s-stub