top of page
  • Writer's pictureRaúl Revuelta

Alpine Ski World Champions: Jean-Claude Killy




Jean-Claude Killy (Saint-Cloud, Seine-et-Oise, August 30, 1943) is a French former World Cup Alpine Ski racer. Killy was born in a suburb of Paris, during the German 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. He dominated the sport in the late 1960s. He won two gold medals at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Portillo and was a triple Olympic champion, winning the three alpine events at the 1968 Olympic Winter Games. He also won the first two World Cup titles, in 1967 and 1968.


In August 1966, in Portillo, Chile, in the first and only FIS Alpine World Ski Championships held in in the Southern Hemisphere, Killy scored his first win in a Downhill race, and also took gold in the Combined.


After winning 12 of 16 World Cup races during the 1966-1967 season, in the first Winter Olympic Games to be broadcast in color, French hero Jean-Claude Killy swept the Men’s Alpine events. He began by winning gold in the Downhill, slashing across the finish line a mere eight-hundredths of a second ahead of French teammate Guy Périllat. Then when, for the first time, the Giant Slalom contest was decided by a combination of two runs rather than a single run, Killy again won gold – by more than two seconds. Killy needed the Slalom to complete the Alpine sweep. His second run kept him in the lead until the turn of his closest rival, Karl Schranz. But as Schranz sped through the fog, he skidded to a halt, claiming that someone had crossed his path. Granted a rerun, Schranz beat Killy's time and was declared the winner. But a Jury of Appeal disqualified him for missing a gate and awarded gold to Killy.

He also won the world title in the Combined, then a "paper" race, -the world champion in the combined was determined "on paper" by the results of the three races of Downhill, Giant Slalom, and Slalom-, but awarded with medals by the International Ski Federation (FIS).



Olympic Winter Games Starts: 6 

Olympic Winter Games Medals: 3 

Olympic Winter Games Victories: 3


FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Starts: 10 

FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Podiums: 6 

FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Victories: 6 


FIS World Cup Starts: 27

FIS World Cup Podiums: 24

FIS World Cup Victories: 18


Comments


bottom of page