During the 1930s, Lunn was one of Britain's leading skiers. He was a member of the British international ski team from 1931 to 1937, and its captain from 1934 to 1937. At the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he led the British ski team and finished twelfth in the alpine skiing combined event, the highest British placing. "I was overawed by the event and skied too carefully," he said later. "It was the only major international downhill race in which I failed to fall." Lunn and his father, who refereed the slalom in the 1936 Winter Olympics, detested every form of totalitarianism. Neither marched in the opening procession or attended the lavish banquet given by the Nazis.