KILLY Jean Claude (FRA)
30.08.1943 - St Cloud / Val d'Isere

1968 retired
Portillo WM66 left, to right
Killy, Famose, Lacroix, Goitschel M,
World Championships 1966 Portillo
Photo: Fueda Production
Killy Face World Cup Ranking
General
1967/1st, 1968/1st
Special
1967 DH/1st, SL/1st, GS/1st,
1968 DH/2nd, SL/2nd, GS/1st
World Championships
1966 Portillo DH/1st, GS/5th, K/1st
Olympic Games
1964 Innsbruck GS/5th
1968 Grenoble DH/1st, SL/1st, GS/1st, K/1st(WCS)
World Cup - 18 w. (6 DH, 7 GS, 5 SL)
1. DH: Wengen 67, Kitzbuhel 67, Mageve 67, Sestriere 67, Franconia 67,
Grenoble 68.
GS: Adelboden 67, Franconia 67, Vail 67, Jackson Hall 67, Meribel 68,
Adelboden 68, Grenoble 68.
SL: Wengen 67, Kitzbuhel 67, Franconia 67, Rossland 68, Grenoble 68.
France's Jean Claude Killy established himself as a superstar early in the life of the World Cup: 1967 and 1968. Killy won 18 of the 37 races he entered on those first two years of the World Cup -- six downhills, five slaloms and seven giant slaloms. He also captured all three alpine Olympic gold medals in 1968 and a total of three titles in downhill and combined in 1966 and 1968 at the FIS World Championships.

Killy was just 18 in December 1961 when he won the giant slalom in his hometown at the Criterium de la 1ere Neige in Val d'Isere. Amazingly he was only 24 when he gave up ski racing in the spring of 1968. Talk about going out on top!

Among Killy's greatest successes, all the "classical" downhills at Wengen, Kitzbuhel, Megeve and Sestriere (Arlberg-Kandahar). In January 1967, he set a record still unbroken -- In three weeks he racked up six consecutive victories (GS- Adelbolden, DH & SL Kitzbuhel and Wengen, DH at Megeve) in the three classical Alpine specialties.

A truly gifted and intelligent racer, Killy used his great instincts and mental toughness on the most challenging courses. His greatest triumph may have been his Olympic downhill victory when he beat teammate Guy Perillat by 8/100 of a second after having accidentally scrapped the wax off his skis before the start. After a four-year break, the Frenchman come back to ski racing on the pro-tour and won the pro World Title in 1973. He also achieved an impressive career in the world of sport business with the help of Mark McCormack of the International Management Group. Killy led France to a successful bid for the 1992 Albertville Olympics and remains a member of the I.O.C. and chief executive of the "du Tour de France".

Patorick Lang
Biorama Basel