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Revision as of 10:56, 16 August 2012
Template:Infobox alpine ski racer
Jean-Claude Killy (born August 30, 1943) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from France. Born in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, he dominated the sport in the late 1960s. He was a triple Olympic champion, winning the three alpine events at the 1968 Winter Olympics, becoming the most successful athlete there. He also won the first two World Cup titles, in 1967 and 1968.
Early life
Killy was born in Saint-Cloud, a suburb of Paris, during the Nazi occupation of World War II, but was brought up in Val-d'Isère in the Alps, where his family had relocated in 1945 following the war. His father, Robert, was a former Spitfire pilot for the Free French, and opened a ski shop in the Savoie village, and would later operate a hotel. In 1950, his mother Madeline abandoned the family for another man, leaving Robert to raise Jean-Claude, age 7, his older sister (France), and their infant brother (Mic). Jean-Claude was sent to boarding school in Chambéry, Template:Convert down the valley, but he despised being shut up in a classroom.[1]
Early career
Killy turned his attention to skiing rather than school. His father allowed him to drop out at age 15, and he made the French national junior team a year later. As a young racer, Killy was fast, but did not usually complete his races, and the early 1960s were not entirely successful for him.[1]
In December 1961, at age 18, Killy won his first international race, a giant slalom. The event took place in his home village of Val-d'Isere. Killy had started 39th, a position that should have been a severe disadvantage.[1]
The French coach picked Killy for the giant slalom in the 1962 World Championships in Chamonix, France, 50 miles (80 km) away in the shadow of Mont Blanc. But Killy, unaware of his selection, was still attempting to qualify for the downhill event in northeastern Italy at Cortina d'Ampezzo. Only three weeks before the world championships, he skied in his typical reckless style. About two hundred yards (180 m) from the finish, Killy hit a stretch of ice in a compression and went down, rose immediately, then crossed the finish on just one ski—and the fastest time. Unfortunately, his other leg was broken, and he watched the 1962 World Championships on crutches.[1]
Two years later, at age 20, Killy was entered in all three of the men's events at the 1964 Olympics, because his coach wanted to prepare him for 1968. Unfortunately, Killy was plagued by recurrences of amoebic dysentery and hepatitis, ailments that he had contracted in 1962 during a summer of compulsory service with the French Army in Algeria. His form was definitely off, and he fell a few yards after the start of the downhill, lost a binding in the slalom, and finished fifth in the giant slalom, in which he had been the heavy favorite.[1]
Although the first half of the decade was a relative disappointment, Killy begin to improve his results in August 1966. Killy won his first downhill race against an international field at the 1966 World Championships in Portillo, Chile in August, and also took gold in the combined. Killy was peaking as the first World Cup season was launched in January 1967, with the 1968 Winter Olympics in France only a year away.
Dominance – 1967–68
World Cup results
Season standings
| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant Slalom |
Super G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 1 | not run |
1 | not awarded |
| 1968 | 24 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Season titles
- 6 titles - (2 overall, 1 DH, 2 GS, 1 SL)
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 1967 | Overall |
| Downhill | |
| Giant Slalom | |
| Slalom | |
| 1968 | Overall |
| Giant Slalom |
Individual races
- 18 wins – (6 DH, 7 GS, 5 SL)
- 24 hipipodiums – (8 DH, 9 GS, 7 SL)
| Season | Date | Location | Discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | 9 Jan 1967 | Template:Country data SUI Adelboden, Switzerland | Giant Slalom |
| 14 Jan 1967 | Template:Country data SUI Wengen, Switzerland | Downhill | |
| 15 Jan 1967 | Slalom | ||
| 21 Jan 1967 | Template:Country data AUT Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | |
| 22 Jan 1967 | Slalom | ||
| 27 Jan 1967 | Template:Country data FRA Megève, France | Downhill | |
| 3 Mar 1967 | Template:Country data ITA Sestriere, Italy | Downhill | |
| 10 Mar 1967 |  Franconia, NH, USA |
Downhill | |
| 11 Mar 1967 | Slalom | ||
| 12 Mar 1967 | Giant Slalom | ||
| 19 Mar 1967 | Vail, CO, USA |
Giant Slalom | |
| 25 Mar 1967 | Jackson, WY, USA |
Giant Slalom | |
| 1968 | 8 Jan 1968 | Template:Country data SUI Adelboden, Switzerland | Giant Slalom |
| 9 Feb 1968 | Template:Country data FRA Grenoble, France 1968 Winter Olympics ^ |
Downhill | |
| 12 Feb 1968 | Giant Slalom | ||
| 17 Feb 1968 | Slalom | ||
| 10 Mar 1968 | Template:Country data FRA Méribel, France | Giant Slalom | |
| 29 Mar 1968 | Template:Country data CAN Rossland, BC, Canada | Slalom |
^ Results from the 1968 Winter Olympics (and 1970 World Championships) were included in the World Cup standings.
Killy was the first World Cup champion in 1967, winning 12 of 17 races to easily take the overall title. He also won the season titles in each of the three disciplines; he won all five of the downhill races and four of the five giant slalom races.
The following year, Killy won the Triple Crown of Alpine Skiing with a sweep of all three gold medals (downhill, giant slalom, and slalom) in controversial circumstances at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. By finishing first in both the downhill and slalom, he also easily won the world championship medal in the combined event.
Killy wasn't just faster than the other skiers, he was smarter. Electrical timing by Omega was accurate to one-hundredth of a second. The starting official counted aloud, "3-2-1-Go" and the skier's boot moved forward to push a pivoting rod aside and start the timer. Everyone knew that the closer they got to the bar, the less distance they would travel. Killy, however, relied on enormous upper-body strength and outwitted his opponents. Rather than crowd as close as possible to the bar, Killy knew that he was allowed a 6-second window to push it aside. When the official began counting, he could trip the lever any time he chose from the beginning of the "3-" call and up to 3 seconds after the "Go" signal. Therefore, he rose backward, raised his body completely off the ground with his arms and poles, pulled his feet backwards, and propelled himself forward. Instead of beginning from a standing start right at the bar, as everyone else did, he hit the bar while already moving forward, giving himself a slight edge.
With the Olympic events included (for the only time) in the World Cup standings, Killy easily repeated in 1968 as the overall champion, placing first in the giant slalom and second in the downhill and slalom season standings. He retired following the 1968 season, and moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1969.
Post-Olympic career
In May 1968, Killy signed with International Management Group, the sports management firm headed by Mark McCormack. After racing on Dynamic VR17 skis during the part of his career when he was dominant, Killy signed a deal with Head Skis in early 1969 to endorse a metal and fiberglass ski named for him, the Killy 800. Head, which was acquired by AMF later that year, manufactured a line of Killy skis for at least two years.
Killy also became a spokesman for Schwinn bicycles and Chevrolet automobiles; the latter, a role detailed by journalist Hunter S. Thompson in his 1970 article "The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy" for Scanlan's Monthly.
Killy starred as a ski instructor in the 1972 crime movie Snow Job, released in the UK as The Ski Raiders, and US TV as The Great Ski Caper. American children in the early 1970s knew Killy from a TV commercial where he introduces himself, his thick accent making his name into "Chocolate Kitty." Killy played himself in the 1983 movie Copper Mountain: A Club Med Experience, starring Jim Carrey and Alan Thicke, set at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
Although Killy did not compete in the 1972 Olympic Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, he was a celebrity guest, and used a classic stiff-arm fend to knock a 5'-2", 17-year-old female American exchange student from out of the path of his entourage, into a snowbank.
Jean-Claude Killy also had a short career as a racing driver between 1967 and 1970, participating in the Paris Dakar Rally. In team with fellow Frenchman Bernard Cahier, Killy was 7th overall in the 1967 Targa-Florio in a Porsche 911 S.
In November 1972, Killy came out of ski racing retirement at age 29 to compete on the pro circuit in the U.S. for one season. After a spirited challenge from two-time defending champion Spider Sabich, Killy won the 1973 season title, taking $28,625 in race winnings and a $40,000 bonus for the championship.[2]
In addition to trying his skill as a car racer, Killy made two television series. One, The Killy Style, was a thirteen-week series that showcased various ski resorts, and the other, The Killy Challenge, featured him racing against celebrities, who were all given handicaps. He was also sponsored by a champagne company, Moët & Chandon, which paid him to be seen with a bottle of their champagne on his table everywhere he went. In 1974 Killy, as part of this sponsorship deal was paid to ski down the previously unskied eastern slope of Mt Ngaurohoe (Mt Doom) in New Zealand. The average slope on this side of the live volcano is 35 degrees. A radar recorded his speed at over 100 miles per hour. He did this twice as cloud cover spoilt the first filming shoot.
Read more: Jean-Claude Killy – Three Gold Medals – Junior Johnson, Slalom, Wins, Ski, Johnson, Downhill, and Time http://sports.jrank.org/pages/2514/Killy-Jean-Claude-Three-Gold-Medals.html#ixzz11uboewfi
From 1977 to 1994, he was a member of the Executive board of the Alpine Skiing Committee of the FIS. Killy served as co-president of the 1992 Winter Olympics, held in Albertville, France, and as the President of the Société du Tour de France cycling race between 1992 and 2001. From 1995 to 2008, he was a member of the International Olympic Committee.
The ski area of Val d'Isère and Tignes in the French Alps was given the name l'Espace Killy, in his honor.
Jean-Claude Killy became Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur in 2000.
Intrawest credits Jean-Claude Killy with the design of a ski trail, "Cupp Run," at their Snowshoe resort in West Virginia.
Personal life
From 1973 to 1987, he was married to French actress Danièle Gaubert, until her death from cancer. Together they had a daughter, Emilie; he also adopted her two children from her first marriage to Rhadamés Trujillo, the son of Rafael Trujillo, the assassinated dictator of the Dominican Republic. Gaubert and Trujillo were divorced in 1968 and later that year she met Killy. [1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Sports Illustrated - Killy: A Man and his Kingdom – 1990-02-12
- ↑ vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com – March 1973
External links
- Template:FIS
- Ski-db.com – results – Jean-Claude Killy
- BBC.net.uk – Killy's killer instinct
- Sports Illustrated – Killy: A Man and his Kingdom – 12 February 1990
- Sports Illustrated – Goodby, Broadway, Hello, Schranz – 16 April 1973
- Sports Illustrated – cover stories of Jean-Claude Killy – 1966–68
- cover (& articles) – 18 November 1968
- cover (& articles) – 27 March 1967
- cover (& articles) – 21-Feb-1966
- Template:IMDb name
- The Christian Science Monitor – Whatever Happened To...Jean-Claude Killy? – 4 November 1999
| Preceded by Template:Country data CAN Frank King |
President of Organizing Committee for Winter Olympic Games 1992 |
Succeeded by Template:Country data NOR Gerhard Heiberg |
Template:Authority control
Template:Persondata