A Daring Life

There is no doubt that among the athletes who gathered in St. Moritz for the 1928 Winter Olympic Games, the most talented was 16-year-old American William Meade Lindsley Fiske III. Billy Fiske to most, or just “Bill” to his family and friends. Billy had a privileged upbringing, being the only son of a wealthy Chicago banker, and from an early age had shown a passion for speed and thrill-seeking, learning to drive when he was just ten. Billy and his elder sister Beulah “Pegy” moved to Europe in 1924 with their parents on account of their father’s work, who was appointed Head of European Operations for the investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. The Fiske family bought a house on the Avenue Bugeaud in Paris, and purchased a château just outside Biarritz. There, at the age of 14, Billy is said to have saved a man from drowning on the beach, an early sign of his courage.

His parents travelled around Europe together on business while the children were sent away to private boarding schools. In the holidays, while their parents were away, negotiating loans on behalf of the bank with a number of European governments, the teenagers were looked after by numerous servants. They had to improvise on their own and found ample opportunity to indulge in numerous unauthorised adventures. On one occasion the 15-year-old Billy “borrowed” his father’s prized red Bugatti — much like Matthew Broderick “borrowed” his father’s precious Ferrari in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. With Pegy as co-driver, they entered a local hill climb race with the car. After winning the event, Billy swore his sister to secrecy, but luckily, she kept an account of this race in her scrapbook. Escapades like this characterised his approach to life and endeared him to everyone he encountered. His devil-may-care attitude attracted everyone, like moths to a light.

Billy and his family first visited St. Moritz in the winter season of 1926/27. His father bought one of the new bobsleighs for Pegy and Bill to use, which was christened “Satan”. When not practicing on the track, the family would spend the days skiing, skating and watching the Cresta Run. It is likely that Pegy and Billy both rode the Cresta Run once or twice from Junction that year as women were allowed in those days, until a ban on women riders was introduced two years later. It was clear from the start that Billy, as the steerer of a bobsleigh, was “special” when he won the prestigious Bobsleigh Derby Cup. Fiske also won the Olavegoya Cup for the fastest time in the race. At that time, the Bobsleigh rules stated there should be five in a crew, one of whom had to be a woman.They should be either seated, or in the case of Billy’s crew in the ventre à terre style where the crew lay down, overlapping one another. Women were not so happy with this style for obvious reasons. It was eventually banned by both the Olympic Committee and all bobsleigh clubs.

Perhaps it was this success that attracted the interest of the USA Bobsleigh Committee when selecting their teams for the 1928 Winter Olympic Games which took place in St. Moritz the following season. Billy also knew the course very well, and one of his skills was the ability to judge the perfect line needed to steer his way through the various curves and corners of the Olympic track. His only American rival at the time was J. R. “Jack” Heaton, the youngest of three brothers who were talented “sliders” on both the bobsleigh and the Cresta Run. The Heaton family also lived in Europe. Their mother brought the family every year to St. Moritz for Christmas and New Year, staying at the Palace Hotel.

After practicing on the course, Jack Heaton was nominated to steer USA I and Billy USA II. It was an inspired selection, but when riding in the final course of the Cresta Run Olympic event, Jack injured himself, and his elder brother Jennison replaced him as steerer of USA I. Due to the warm weather the race was reduced to two courses to be held over two days. Billy was in second place after the first course. The next morning Billy and his USA II crew had an early draw and posted a good time. USA II took first place by half a second from USA I, and Billy became the youngest Winter Olympian to win a Gold Medal, a record that stood until 1992.

The friendly rivalry between Billy and Jack extended to the Cresta Run as well as the Bob. In 1931/32 a public “duel” on the Bob Run with Cresta toboggans took place. The prize was CHF 2000 and Char-lie Chaplin, in St. Moritz to promote his last silent film City Lights, acted as judge. The European premiere was held in the local cinema. Jack, the more experienced skeleton rider, proved a worthy winner, something Billy was keen to overcome. Meanwhile, he had to defend his Olympic title at the 1932 Lake Placid Games, where he carried the Stars and Stripes at the Opening Parade. Billy with his three crewmen duly won gold again. Afterwards he became disillusioned with Team USA’s management. Combined with the political situation in Germany, this persuaded him not to participate in the 1936 Winter Games in Garmisch.

In St. Moritz and beyond, Billy, the Heatons and their friends had a lot of fun and games together. Pegy married Jennison Heaton, ho, like Billy, was also a keen motor racing driver. Billy had been forbidden by his father to race cars and so had to assume a pseudonym to continue his passion for speed on the race tracks. It is said he even competed at Le Mans in a Bentley. The Bob and Cresta were allowed as Fiske Sr. considered them less risky.

Billy won two Curzon Cups in 1935 and 1937, and two Grand Nationals in 1936 and 1938, setting new records in both those years. He was probably the greatest Cresta rider of all time, given the very limited number of races he competed in and the fact that he never had a fall at the infamous Shuttlecock Corner. As in life, he always pushed himself and his toboggan to the very limit.

Back in the States, now working for Dillon, Read & Co, Billy went to Hollywood looking for investment opportunities in the film industry. His friend, the English actor David Niven, introduced him at a party to his future wife Rose, the recently divorced Countess of Warwick. With a business partner, he also invested in a small defunct gold mining town called Aspen, with the ambition to create a winter sports destination to rival St. Moritz. Rose and Billy were married in 1938 in London before returning to New York as war in Europe loomed. Shortly after, when war had broken out, he volunteered, like many of his English friends, for military service with the RAF. As an American, he was forbidden to enlist and had to pretend to be a Canadian. On completion of his flying training, he secured a posting to Tangmere in the South of England. In 1940, he participated in the Battle of Britain against the German Luftwaffe. He was a good pilot but inexperienced in aerial dog-fighting. After recording two “kills”, his luck ran out and over the fields of Kent, his plane received a hit. With his engine on fire, he nursed it back to Tangmere, instead of perhaps bailing out as he should have. The fire took hold after he crash-landed with no undercarriage beside the runway. Billy received such serious burns that he died from shock two days later on August 18, 1940 in Chichester Hospital, aged only 28.

His grieving widow Rose donated Billy’s toboggan to the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club, where it still hangs in the Altitude Bar of Kulm Hotel — the club’s spiritual home and a place where his daring spirit lives on. Echoes of those glamorous, reckless years can still be heard today at the Cresta prize-giving lunches in the Sunny Bar below, where the members of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club raise a glass to Billy Fiske and other legends of St. Moritz.

This story first appeared in the book “Begegnungen/Encounters”, published by Kulm Hotel St. Moritz.