Frank Prihoda

Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), in 1921, Prihoda learned to ski with his sister and Olympic skier, Alexandra Nekvapilová's help[2] and had his 1st downhill race in 1937.[3] In 1936, a year before his downhill race of 1937, Frank began ski racing with the Czechoslovak Ski Federation squad.[3] Also in 1937 when aged 16, his parents died and he took over the family's artificial flower manufacturing business, managing it throughout World War II.[2]

Along with Alexandra Nekvapilová and her husband Karel, he defected from Czechoslovakia in 1948, when it became a communist country, first travelling to Austria and then to Australia where he settled. There, they started one of the first ski-lodge businesses in Thredbo, New South Wales.[4] In 1950, Frank and his family boarded a ship to emigrate to Australia, skis in tow, arriving in Melbourne, and began working in manufacturing artificial flowers before moving over to the furniture and textile trades.[3] In 1956, he participated in the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.[2]

In 1958, Prihoda became chairman of the race committee of the Victorian Ski Association, before moving to Thredbo to join his family in 1974, where he owned a shop until 2001 at age 80. A year before the closing, in 2000, he carried the Olympic Torch in Thredbo, lighting the cauldron on the Village Green. Prihoda still skied until he became 90 years old.[2]

In 2020, a ski run was named after Prihoda.[3] Prihoda died on 10 November 2022, at the age of 101.[5]

• Frank Prihoda at Olympedia
• Frank Prihoda at the Australian Olympic Committee