It’s not often you hear of someone being an MI5 agent and Olympic alpine skier in the same sentence.
But Rosemarie Boumphrey née Sparrow, known as Rosie, was always one for breaking the mould.
More than 6900 Olympians have represented Great Britain over the years. Boumphrey was one of just seven known to have reached the age of 100, passing away on 13th October 2025.
A true fighter, Boumphrey perfectly embodied the Olympic spirit.
She was born on 6th July 1925 in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, and was educated in Cheshire and Norfolk, before attending the Club of the Three Wise Monkeys aged eighteen.
This “finishing school” provided five main strands of educational activity for society girls: general education, music, secretarial training and languages, domestic science, and dressmaking.
But skiing was Boumphrey’s real interest. Her love for the slopes began in 1937, at the age of 12. While her father was being treated for tuberculosis at a clinic in Davos, Switzerland, Boumphrey spent the winter season flying down the Swiss mountains.
Boumphrey’s passion for alpine skiing had well and truly been ignited but it would be another 10 years before she first skied competitively.
In 1944, with the Second World War in full force, Boumphrey joined the War Office. She was stationed in the grounds of Blenheim Palace and assigned to work in section E5, due to her German language fluency.
Section E5 was the part of MI5 that dealt with German and Italian internees. As an officer’s assistant, Boumphrey sat in on interviews and helped with the vetting process. On several occasions, she visited the Isle of Man camps where the internees were living.
During the war, Boumphrey had not skied for several years. So, when the opportunity arose to work in Geneva, she jumped at the chance.
She accepted a secretarial position for the World Council of Churches (WCC), and spent the next two years helping with relief efforts for wartime refugees.
It was a win-win for the Olympic hopeful, meaningful work paired with easy access to ski slopes in the Swiss Alps.
The young Brit also met her first husband in Geneva: Jean-Jacques Fuchs, who shared her passion for the sport.
Fuelled by a newfound confidence in her skiing abilities, and with the 1948 Winter Olympics taking place in the Swiss town of St. Moritz, Boumphrey decided to go for it.
More than 10 years after her first trip down the pistes, she applied to ski for Great Britain at the Olympics.
After making the team, Boumphrey enjoyed a successful warm-up as she finished second to Isobel Roe in the downhill race at the 1948 Lowlander’s Championship.
Her Olympic debut would not be so fruitful. At the 1948 Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz, Boumphrey competed in the downhill race.
Despite falling twice during the race, she still came out on top against fellow Britons Sheena Mackintosh and Xanthe Ryder, finishing 30th with a time of 2:52.30.
She had inspired others, with her “never give up” attitude. She had, quite literally, fallen and got back up.
Though Boumphrey did not compete again, alpine skiing remained an integral part of her life. She became a lifelong enthusiast of the famous ski resort Klosters, and taught her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to ski there.
Her second husband, Peter Boumphrey, was a fellow ski fanatic, having also been part of the 1948 British ski team.
But Boumphrey’s legacy spanned much further than the skiing world, as a linguist, former MI5 worker and trailblazer for female British Winter Olympians.
Sportsbeat 2025