Smith, Christine Idris (1946 - 1979)

An only child, Christine Smith was educated at St Patrick’s Brigidine convent school, Cooma, and Sydney Church of England Grammar School for Girls, Moss Vale. Living at Berridale, near the snowfields, she learned to ski while still young and by 1962, was competing for Australia in the Commonwealth Winter Games in Switzerland. Two years later she was a member of the Australian team at the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and competed at the Australian National Alpine Ski Championships and the Thredbo Cup. She competed in the World Ski Championships in Chile in 1966, and was pre-selected for the 1968 Olympic Games at Grenoble, France, but the team was downsized and she did not compete.

For some years Smith taught skiing at Thredbo and other venues before establishing in 1974 an interior design business, Christine Smith Interiors Pty Ltd, specialising in bathroom accessories. In 1977 she married Wayne Arthur Garland, an advertising executive.

Smith’s business was not successful, and in 1979 she committed suicide in a motel at Crows Nest. She was buried at Berridale.

Australian Women Exhibitions

• She's Game: Women Making Australian Sporting History, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2007, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/sg/sport-home.html. [ Details... ]

See also

• Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au. [ Details... ]