Franz Klammer

Franz Klammer (born 3 December 1953) is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria. He established an unprecedented period of dominance in the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons (1975–78). He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, winning the downhill at Patscherkofel by a margin of 0.33 seconds with a time of 1:45.73 against Bernhard Russi of Switzerland. Klammer won 25 World Cup downhills, including four on the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel. He also holds the record for the most victories (four) on the full course at Kitzbühel.

Background Klammer was born into a farming family in Mooswald, a community Fresach, Carinthia; like many alpine farm boys, he skied to school each winter day. His home village did not have any ski lifts, so as a child he climbed up the pasture behind his house to ski downhill. Klammer started racing at the age of 14, competing in the winter whilst working on the family farm during the summer after he dropped out of school. He had a tough struggle to make the Austrian ski team, which traditionally was dominated by the states of Tyrol and Salzburg. He made his World Cup debut at the age of 19 in 1972 at the Val Gardena downhill: he finished ninth in the training run for the race, but could only manage 32nd place on race day due to nerves. In the Olympic test event at Patscherkofel at Innsbruck in January 1975, Klammer had defeated defending Olympic champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, the runner-up, by nearly a half-second.

Entering the 1976 Winter Olympics, the 22-year-old Klammer was the favourite to take the gold medal in the downhill at Innsbruck in his native Austria. He was the defending World Cup downhill champion and had won the three previous downhills in January at Wengen, Morzine and Kitzbühel, and also the previous year's race on the same Patscherkofel course. Starting in 15th position, Klammer was the last of the top seeds and knew that Bernhard Russi had set a blistering pace to lead by over a half-second. Klammer took heavy risks on the treacherous piste, skied on the edge of disaster and won by 0.33 seconds to the delight of the Austrian fans. A dozen years earlier on the same course in 1964, Egon Zimmermann posted a 2:18.16 to win the gold medal. Klammer's 1:45.73 was more than thirty-two seconds faster.

Although he dominated the downhill event in World Cup competition, the overall title remained elusive, because the technical specialists had two events in which to earn points (slalom and giant slalom), whereas a speed specialist had only one. The second speed event, the super-G, was not a World Cup event until December 1982, at the twilight of Klammer's World Cup career.

At the end of the 1975 season, despite having won eight of nine downhills, Klammer finished third for the overall World Cup title. The final event was a parallel slalom and Klammer lost in the first round. Italy's Gustav Thöni defeated Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark in the finals and won his fourth overall title in five years. Klammer finished fourth overall in 1976, third in 1977, and fifth in 1978.

Klammer won the World Cup downhill title five times: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1983 – twice more than the next best downhiller. In the 1975 season he won 8 of 9 World Cup downhill races, including his first of three consecutive victories (1975–77) on the prestigious Streif on the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel. He won a fourth in 1984, at the age of 30.

After his fourth consecutive season title in downhill in 1978, Klammer began a prolonged slump until the end of the 1981 season. He may have been affected by his brother's spinal cord injury in a downhill race, as well as a change of ski supplier (from Fischer to Kneissl).

Unable to make the four-member Austrian downhill team for the 1980 Olympics, Klammer could not defend his Olympic title at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Rather than retire, he worked long and hard at a comeback. Finally in December 1981, after another ski change from Kneissl to Blizzard, he won at Val-d'Isère. The following season he regained the World Cup Downhill title, his fifth, followed by the 1984 victory at Kitzbuehel, his fourth on the Hahnenkamm. At the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, (then Yugoslavia, now Bosnia), Klammer finished a disappointing tenth on a less-than-challenging course on Bjelašnica.

At his peak (Wengen 1976 to Wengen 1977), Klammer won ten consecutive downhills, including the pressure-laden win at the 1976 Olympics. He won 8 of 9 during the 1975 season and also won 19 of 23, 20 of 26 and 21 of 29 downhills. His career total is 26 downhill wins: 25 World Cup and one Olympic. These achievements mark him as one of the greatest downhill racers ever: Karl Schranz achieved 20 wins over an extended career while Klammer won 19 in less than three seasons.

In an interview with Austrian television in 2006, the 52-year-old Klammer was asked about his greatest achievement. He answered that although his gold medal at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck was generally regarded as his greatest career achievement, winning at Kitzbühel in 1984 meant something very special to him, considering that he had not won there for seven years.

Klammer's final World Cup race was in March 1985 at Aspen, Colorado. He retired from international competition at the age of 31.Klammer finished with 26 World Cup victories, 45 podiums and 87 top-ten finishes (71 downhill, five combined, 11 giant slalom).

Motor racing Immediately after his retirement from alpine competition, Klammer took up motor racing, and was soon involved in touring car racing, driving Mercedes-Benz saloons all over Europe and racing professionally as far away as Australia. In 1986, he won his class in a round of the prestigious European Touring Car Championship.

Legacy Klammer is known by his nicknames "The Kaiser" and the "Klammer Express".

In a 2015 interview with Graham Bell for The Daily Telegraph, Klammer attributed his success to being the first downhiller to carve a whole turn from start to finish, contrasting his style with skiers of the previous generation such as Karl Schranz and Jean-Claude Killy who would skid at the start of a turn before engaging in a carve.

World Cup results

Season titles

Season standings Season Age Overall Slalom Giant slalom Super G Downhill Combined 1973 19 8 — 9 notrun 4 notawarded 1974 20 5 — 10 2 1975 21 3 — 9 1 1976 22 4 — — 1 4 1977 23 3 — — 1 notawarded 1978 24 5 — — 1 1979 25 51 — — 19 1980 26 33 — — 11 — 1981 27 40 — — 13 — 1982 28 14 — — 5 — 1983 29 18 — — notawarded 1 — 1984 30 20 — — 4 — 1985 31 52 — — 16 —

Race victories 26 wins - (25 downhill, 1 combined)

World championship results Year Age Slalom Giant slalom Super-G Downhill Combined 1974 20 20 10 notrun 2 1 1976 22 — DNF1 1 — 1978 24 — — 5 — 1980 26 — — —^ — 1982 28 — — 7 — 1985 31 — — 5 — From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing. At the World Championships from 1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).

Year Age Slalom Giant slalom Super-G Downhill Combined 1976 22 — DNF1 notrun 1 notrun 1980 26 — — —^ 1984 30 — — 10 ^ Klammer was an alternate on the 1980 team and did not compete.

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