Skiing was a family sport for Antony Guss as his parents Sandra and Joseph had built Ajax Ski Club at Mt Buller in the late 1950s. Also, Antony’s grandparents had met at Mt Buffalo on a school trip and had been avid skiers at Mt Buller. Finally, Guss was five years old when his uncle Simon Brown competed at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympic Winter Games. 

He remembers that his parents were active in the administration of the Victorian Ski Association, with Joseph serving as President for many years and Sandra organising garage sales to raise funds for VSA and the Mt Buller Race Club hut. They were also greatly encouraging of their children activities on the snow, driving them around all major resorts in Victoria and NSW to allow them to compete and often volunteering on the races. Their effort was instrumental in the development of not one but three Olympians, as Antony and his siblings Marilla and Alistair all went on to represent Australia at the Winter Games.

When Antony was 11 his mum arranged for him to travel to Les Deux Alpes, a French ski resort, to join the local school and race club. Sandra left her son in the care of coach Robert Tessa’s family for a few weeks while she was travelling elsewhere in Europe. French coaches Tessa and Duvillard, alongside Austrian Martin Kerscher and Swiss Jan Tischauser were fundamental in Guss and his teammates’ development. “They believed in us, trained us both in Australia and in Europe, gave us the basis on technique and the ability to compete in Europe,” said Guss. 

After the disappointment of missing out selection for the 1976 Winter Olympics at 16, Guss made the team four years later and competed in the Slalom, Giant Slalom and Downhill at Lake Placid 1980. He also placed sixth in the combined event, which at the time was not an Olympic event, but a recognised FIS calendar event.

Guss’ career highlights include a top-15 finish at the FIS World Cup Downhill Race in Crans Montana, Switzerland, and a third place the Hannekham Combined race in Kitzbuhel, Austria, in 1980. In 1983 he won the overall Australian Championships beating an emerging Steven Lee, a success that had long eluded Guss during his career.

After his racing career, family became Guss’ top priority. He went on to run the Mt Buller Racing Club for some years and headed up ski clubs for his children’s schools, in an endeavour to give back to the sport. He currently resides in Dubai, where he still skis in the local Indoor Ski Centre. He occasionally meets up with his old competition buddies in Europe, Japan or USA, and supports his Dad’s ski racing, who recently won several FIS masters races in Europe at 82 years of age.