Marina Doria

Ricolfi-Doria was born in Geneva on 12 February 1935;[1] her parents were Iris Benvenuti and René Ricolfi-Doria, a Swiss Olympic athlete.[2] In 1955 she became a water-skiing performer at Cypress Gardens, in Florida in the United States. She competed three times in the Water Ski World Championships; in 1953, in 1955 and in 1957. In 1955 she took the Tricks gold medal, and in 1957 she took gold in both Slalom and Tricks, thus becoming the overall women's world champion. She won the overall title in the European Championships every year from 1953 to 1956, and took five or more overall Swiss national titles.[3] In 1991 Ricolfi-Doria was included in the Hall of Fame of the International Water Ski Federation, as the "finest female skier from Europe of the first decade of international competition".[3] She continued to compete until 1960.[3]

Ricolfi-Doria met Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples in 1960 at the Société Nautique de Genève, where both were water-skiing. They were married in a Roman Catholic church in Tehran, Iran, in the autumn of 1971; their wedding had been announced during the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in Persepolis.[4] They have one son, Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice.[5]

As the wife of the head of the House of Savoy, she is entitled to the Privilège du blanc, the ability to wear white garments when in an audience with the pope. She exercised this privilege on 18 May 2003 during a Catholic mass marking the birth anniversary of Pope John Paul II.[6]

•  Holy See: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX[7]