- Source: Corinne Rey-Bellet
Corinne Rey-Bellet (2 August 1972 – 30 April 2006) was a Swiss alpine skier. Rey-Bellet shared a World Championship silver medal in the downhill event in St. Moritz in 2003 (tying with Alexandra Meissnitzer) and won a total of five World Cup races, three downhill and two super-G. Her double win at St Anton am Arlberg on 16 January 1999 is the first and only double win on the same day in the women's Alpine World Cup. She retired in 2003 due to a series of injuries sustained to her right knee.
On 30 April 2006, her husband Gerold Stadler murdered her and her brother, shortly after she separated from him. He killed himself two days later. Her murder attracted a significant amount of public attention and resulted in increased political and institutional pressure to fight domestic violence, and influenced the debate on changing Swiss gun laws. Stadler was a captain in the Swiss Armed Forces, and used his service pistol in her murder; following her death, rules were changed to prohibit the keeping of military ammunition by soldiers at home. In 2021, Rey-Bellet was honored by the Swiss government as part of the Hommage 2021 project to honor women significant to Swiss history.
Early life
Rey-Bellet was born 2 August 1972 in Les Crosets in Valais, Switzerland, to Adrien "Le Sheriff" Rey-Bellet and Verena Rey-Bellet. She had a brother, Alain, two years her junior. Rey-Bellet was bilingual in both French and German as her mother was from German-speaking Basel. Her father's family was locally influential and powerful, landowners who at time harshly conflicted with their neighbors over their wealth.
She grew up skiing, having in an interest in it from her early childhood. She took college classes in Martigny in economics, though her first year attended little, instead preferring to ski.
Career
The disciplines she competed in were the downhill, super-G, and the giant slalom. Her first professional skiing was in winter 1989 at the giant slalom in Veysonnaz. She won a total of five World Cup races from 1992 to 2003. She placed 17th in the women's giant slalom at the 1992 Winter Olympics. She placed third in the giant slalom race at Crans-Montana in the 1991–92 season, which was her only podium placement until 1999.
Her career was marked by repeated injuries. In 1992, she injured her shoulder, tearing her meniscus the following year, and tore the cruciate ligament in her right knee after a severe fall in 1996. For this injury she had to undergo surgery, and had to take an eight month break. Due to previous disappointments, she was at times derisively called "the eternal talent". While previously viewed as having potential and placed under much pressure, called the new Vreni Schneider, the fact she did not win any World Cup races between 1992 and 1996 resulted in disappointment, and she was abandoned by her sponsor.
On 16 January 1999, she won two races, the downhill and the super-G three hours later in the World Cup at St Anton am Arlberg. She won with a lead of 19 hundreths of a second over the second place racer Michaela Dorfmeister. This was the first time a woman had won two races on one day in the alpine skiing World Cup, and is the only time to date. The only man to have done the same was the Frenchman Luc Alphand, who had done so in 1995. She dedicated the win to her psychologist, her family, her boyfriend, and to herself.
She had little success in races shortly after this; she said later that year that "I want to win, but that doesn't change my new philosophy. I ski for myself, for my pleasure. I don't owe anything to anyone." In 2000, the Swiss newspaper Le Temps described her as one of the most consistent of the Swiss skiing team. On 15 January 2000, she won the downhill race at Altenmarkt in the 1999–2000 World Cup, beating the next racer, Regina Häusl, by 15 hundredths of a second. At the 2000–01 World Cup, she came second in the giant slalom at Semmering, third at Lake Louise in the downhill and in the Aspen super-G in 2001. She came first place at Åre in the super-G, and reached the podium in three of the other events. On 2 March 2002, she placed first in the World Cup in the downhill race at Lenzerheide.
On 9 February 2003, she won a silver medal in the downhill at the World Skiing Championship in St. Moritz, in the downhill event. She shared the medal with Austrian skier Alexandra Meissnitzer, both tying at 1:34.41 seconds. She retired later that year to start a family, becoming a stay-at-home mother. This was also due to her knee injuries, as she had developed osteoarthritis.
Personal life
She underwent kinesiology treaments (an alternative medicine) to help her regain movement her knee following her 1996 injury, which she believed helped her recovery. While competing she used alternative medicine treatments (other examples including acupuncture and homeopathy) to treat allergies, to the chagrin of her skiing team's doctors. Following her usage of kinesiology treatments to recover from her injuries, she became passionate about it and began practicing it at home. In 2001, she worked with a naturopath and psychologist, who she credited with improving her mental health.
In 1998 she was engaged to a man named Martin five years her senior, whom she had known for five years. They were still engaged in January 2001. By October 2001, she was dating Gerold "Gery" Stadler, a private banker for Credit Suisse and captain in the Swiss Armed Forces. They married 4 May 2002. Stadler was from Abtwil in the Canton of Aargau, and was bilingual. They met as part of a financial monitoring program from Credit Suisse for prominent Swiss athletes. Stadler asked to marry her shortly after they met. Associates of Stadler described him as working "like a madman" and he was highly successful within the company. Stadler disliked her interest in alternative medicine. In 2004, six months after her retirement, they had a son, living together in Abtwil. Rey-Bellet co-founded Mube (mein|unser Beruf Eltern), a local parent's association. She told L'Illustré magazine in 2004 that she had always wanted to be a mother, and said that Stadler was now the main provider.
While she presented to the public and media a very happy marriage, giving several happy interviews to the media, those that knew them thought she was lonely and that they were having marital problems. According to the pastor that married them, she told him that she was attempting to fix their marriage; Stadler refused to speak of it to anyone and kept up "a facade". Another who knew Rey-Bellet said she felt disconnected in German-speaking Switzerland, and that she had told her that she wanted to be "finally be loved as a woman and a mother, not as a ski champion", and said that Stadler was "very ambitious". Another said that he had used her career for his own advancement. Stadler became physically abusive, which resulted in her needing to be taken to the hospital on several occasions. Stadler's family claimed that he had assaulted her once, after which he had confessed to them and her parents, and that afterwards they had received couples therapy with Stadler also receiving individual therapy. She became pregnant again after this incident.
Murder
In mid-April 2006, their separation was officiated before a St. Gallen lawyer. According to Bellet's father, they "still seemed to love one another" despite this. That month, she separated from Stadler, and moved out of Abtwil and back to Les Crosets with her parents, to "get some perspective" on their relationship. Their son was left with Stadler. Ten days later, on 30 April 2006, Stadler murdered Rey-Bellet in her parents' home.
On April 30, he brought their son home, and put him to bed upstairs. Afterwards, Stadler and Rey-Bellet went downstairs at 9:30 and had a conversation about their separation. Both of Rey-Bellet's parents were home at the time, as was her brother, Alain. Her father left shortly after the conversation started to repair a household appliance. Shortly after her father left, Stadler opened fire, killing Rey-Bellet and Alain, and seriously injuring her mother. According to Rey-Bellet's mother, he took his gun out from under a towel and opened fire without saying anything. Her mother was left disabled without use of her arm, having been shot five times. The shootings happened in the middle of the home, above the bar. Rey-Bellet was three months pregnant. Her brother Alain was to have been married 5 May.
Stadler used his service pistol, which all Swiss men under the age of 42 are issued, in the killing. Their son was left unharmed. Witnesses saw Stadler fleeing the scene with a gun, before he fled the scene by car. A police officer saw him in his car shortly after, resulting in a high speed chase, but he escaped. A warrant was issued for his arrest, resulting in a large manhunt. Stadler's parents arrived, only to be put into hiding in case he targeted them as well. In the search, search dogs were deployed, as was a military helicopter using thermal imaging.
His car was recovered in a forest in Huémoz near Ollon in the Vaud canton, 20 kilometres (12 mi) away from the location of the murders. The car was found abandoned with an empty magazine inside. Stadler's body was found about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) away from his car, by a walker on 3 May. He had killed himself using his military service weapon. The crime was found to be premeditated, with Stadler leaving two notes, one addressed to his parents and the other to his employer. In the note to his parents he asked his parents to raise their son. In both notes he says the crime he was going to commit and why.
Legacy
Her murder was widely publicized, and attracted an immense amount of public and media attention nationally, with many trying to understand what had led to the murder. The media presented it as a crime of passion or an act of madness, in contradiction to the processes that typically lead to familicides. The funeral for Rey-Bellet and her brother took place on 5 May, attended by many members of Europe's skiing fraternity. Many local businesses in the valley closed the day of their funeral.
Rey-Bellet was a celebrity and the murder had happened in what was viewed as a "perfect Swiss family". This resulted in increased political and institutional pressure to fight domestic violence. The case also influenced the debate on changing Swiss gun laws, with a popular initiative for reform forming in the aftermath, particularly spearheaded by the women's magazine Annabelle. The magazine launched a petition, which gained 17,400 signatures for the removal of military weapons from homes. It was then mandatory for every Swiss man under 42 to have their issued service weapon, kept at home, as part of their military service. Switzerland was then noted to have a high rate of family murders, with a contemporary study putting 58% of all murders as family-related, compared to 29% for the Netherlands. At the time, Switzerland had a very high rate of suicide amongst young males, and more familicides than the United States.
After her murder, in 2007, rules were changed banning the storage of military ammunition by soldiers at home instead of in arsenals. The vast majority of Switzerland's soldiers did not keep their ammunition at home prior to this change, with only a few thousand doing so. An additional change was instituted, with soldiers of the army also able to keep their weapons at a central register, instead of guns being mandatory to keep at home. This law change was disputed by anti-gun activists, who argued it was ineffective as it only applied to soldiers, not civilian gun owners. A previous gun debate had resulted from the 2001 Zug massacre, in which 14 people were murdered. Following both the Zug massacre and her murder, in 2011 a referendum was held on instituting stricter firearms laws, which would have entirely banned military weapons from private homes. It failed after it was voted against by 56% of the population.
Her son, orphaned in the shootings, was placed with a related foster family by the authorities of St. Gallen. This followed several high profile custody controversies between the families on both sides, and following the placement several visitation controversies resulted.
15 years after her murder, the Swiss government honored her as part of the Hommage 2021 project, which honors women significant to the history of Switzerland. It was created in response to the 50th anniversary of the achievement of women's suffrage in Switzerland. They described her as, in addition to being a champion, "one of too many women victims of domestic violence and femicide in Switzerland. She embodies both female success and the worst injustices suffered by women." As part of the project, a portrait of her was to be projected onto the exterior of the Berner Kantonalbank and onto the Swiss National Bank in August of 2021.
References
External links
Corinne Rey-Bellet at FIS (alpine)
Corinne Rey-Bellet at Olympics.com
Corinne Rey-Bellet at Olympedia
Official website (archived)