Alberto Tomba

"The ultimate anomaly in a sport filled with sinewy, dour hermits from Switzerland, Austria and Scandinavia who grew up tending cows and learning to ski out of necessity, Tomba was a lowlander, a rich kid and an urban dude—in truth, the first big-city guy ever to win Olympic skiing gold," Curry Kirkpatrick wrote in Sports Illustrated in 1992. With his rock-star status, he brought scores of people who might not otherwise have been skiing fans to the sport, and with his flamboyant lifestyle and his dominance in the slalom and giant slalom, Tomba is sure to be remembered for years to come.