He also won 19 of 23, 20 of 26 and 21 of 29 downhills.
The race was won by the brash Bill Johnson of the U.S., who had recently won at Wengen and publicly predicted his victory.Īt his peak (Wengen 1976 to Wengen 1977), Klammer won ten consecutive downhills, including the spectacular, pressure-laden win at the 1976 Olympics. At the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, (then Yugoslavia, now Bosnia), Klammer finished a disappointing tenth on a less-than-challenging course on Bjelašnica. The following season he regained the World Cup Downhill title, his fifth, followed by the 1984 Hahnenkamm, his fourth. Rather than retire, he worked long and hard at a comeback finally in December 1981 he won at Val-d'Isère. Unable to make the strong Austrian team, Klammer could not defend his Olympic downhill title at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. He would win a fourth in 1984.Īfter his fourth consecutive World Cup Downhill title in (1978 Alpine Skiing World Cup|1978), he began a prolonged slump until the end of the 1981 season, probably affected by his brother's spinal cord injury in a downhill race as well as a change of ski supplier (from Fischer to Blizzard). In the 1974-75 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. Klammer won the World Cup downhill title five times: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1983 twice more than the next best downhiller. 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 1974-75 season, despite having won 8 of 9 downhills, he finished third for the overall World Cup title. 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.Īlthough he dominated the downhill, the overall World Cup title remained elusive, because the technical specialists had two events in which to earn points (slalom & giant slalom) whereas a speed specialist had only one. Starting in the 15th position, Klammer was the last of the top seeds, and knew that defending Olympic champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland had set a blistering pace on the course at Patscherkofel.
He was the defending World Cup downhill champion, and had won the three previous downhills in January at Wengen, Morzine, and Kitzbühel. Klammer won that race and every other downhill that 1975 season, except Megève, where his ski came off.Įntering the 1976 Winter Olympics, the 22 year old Klammer was the favorite to take the gold medal in the downhill. This time Collombin broke his back, unfortunately ending his promising career. In December 1974, Collombin fell at Val-d'Isère, as he had the previous year. After besting Collombin at Schladming under terrible conditions, Collombin bested him at Garmisch, Avoriaz and Wengen. The following season he finished second in the downhill standings behind Roland Collombin of Switzerland, his nemesis that season. Moritz and a third in the giant slalom at Mont Sainte-Anne.
Klammer, age 19, followed this up with a third at St. Klammer first showed signs of promise in the second half of the 1973 World Cup season, finishing second in the St. He spent 12 seasons on the World Cup circuit (1972–84). He had a tough struggle to make the Austrian ski team, dominated by the provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg. Like many alpine farm boys, he skied to school each winter day. He won 25 World Cup downhills, including four on the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel.įranz Klammer was born into a farming family in Mooswald, Carinthia.
He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, winning the downhill at Patscherkofel in dramatic fashion. Franz Klammer (born December 3, 1953) is a former alpine ski racer from Austria who overwhelmingly dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons ( 1975- 78).
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