Discipline: Alpine Skiing
Olympic participations: Innsbruck 1964
Major Career Results: Nationa Champion Slalom, Giant Slalom, Downhill, 1963
Medal awarded in: 2020

Judy Forras was a National Ice-Skating champion before becoming an Olympic Alpine Skier. Her natural talent had already won her a Victorian skating title when in 1952 she travelled up to Mt Buller with her brother Brian.
 
There, Judy met her future husband Ernest Forras, owner of the Kooroora Chalet and ski instructor on the local slopes. She stayed on to work at Kooroora in exchange for ski lessons, her balance aptly translating over from ice skating and helping her quick development as a skier.
 
Judy soon started competing in the new sport and achieved good results under the guidance of her husband. A tough woman, she loved the thrill of competing and pushed herself hard to beat her own times. Once she even skied with a broken thumb - she had her hand plastered to the ski pole to be able to race!
 
She competed in Australia and Europe, but despite her success overseas she ended up missing the opportunity to be selected for the 1960 Winter Olympics. There was only one spot available in the Alpine women's team, and the qualification process required athletes to win the National Australian title. Unfortunately Judy had a bad run on race day and didn't achieve Olympic selection, despite being at the peak of her career.
 
Judy regrouped, had two more children (now a total of four) and came back stronger than ever to win every major State and National Title in all three disciplines, Slalom, Downhill and Giant Slalom. A sweep of medals that gave her automatic selection for the 1964 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, where the women's team had grown to two athletes, the other being Christine Smith. Judy loved the Olympics and what they stood for. Being finally selected to participate was the best moment of her career. It was also a great personal accomplishment - to go so far in her winter sporting dream while being a wife and mother to four children.
 
Judy was 32 years old when she competed in all three disciplines of Alpine Skiing at Innsbruck 1964, along with friends Peter Brockhoff, Simon Wenzel and Simon Brown, who had also got their first taste of skiing back in the early '50s at Mt Buller.
 
On retiring from competitive skiing, Judy helped run Kooroora Chalet at Mt Buller, with her husband Ernest, and became an instructor. In 1970 she also opened and ran for many years her own sports boutiques in the mountains and in South Yarra. She never lost the taste for competition and kept racing in Master and Veteran events, usually coming home with the winning trophy.
 
Judy continued to ski locally and overseas until her passing, in 1996. Her life and sporting success inspired her nephew, Peter Forras, who became an Olympian himself when he competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics.