Franz Klammer
Carinthia, Austria | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation | Alpine skier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Skiing career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disciplines | Downhill, giant slalom, combined | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World Cup debut | December 1972 (age 19) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Retired | March 1985 (age 31) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teams | 2 – (1976, 1984) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medals | 1 (1 gold) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World Championships | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teams | 5 – (1974–85) includes 1976 Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medals | 3 (2 gold) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Seasons | 13 – (1973–85) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wins | 26 – (25 DH, 1 K) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Podiums | 45 – (41 DH, 1 GS, 3 K) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall titles | 0 – (3rd in 1975, 1977) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline titles | 5 – (5 DH: 1975–78, 1983) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Franz Klammer (born 3 December 1953) is a former champion
Background
Born into a farming family in Mooswald, community
Klammer has been married to his wife, Eva, since 1979: the couple met in 1975 when he was in Tunisia at a fitness camp with the Austrian ski team. They have two daughters, Sophie and Stephanie.[1]
Career
Klammer first showed signs of promise in the second half of the
Klammer won every downhill in the 1975 season, except Megève, where one of his skis came off. Without this incident, he would have won the overall World Cup title in March 1975, due to a good slalom result two days earlier at Chamonix, which would have granted him at least a third place (15 points) for the AK-combined of slalom Chamonix / downhill Megève.[2] 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.[3]
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 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 8 of 9 downhills, he 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.[4]
Klammer won the World Cup downhill title five times: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 and
After his fourth consecutive season title in downhill in 1978, he 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).[citation needed]
Unable to make the four-member Austrian downhill team for the 1980 Olympics, Klammer could not defend his Olympic title at the
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 1 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 he hadn't won there in seven years.
His final World Cup race was in March 1985 at Aspen, Colorado. He retired from international competition at age 31.
Klammer finished with 26 World Cup victories, 45 podiums and 87 top ten finishes (71 downhill, 5 combined, 11 giant slalom).[5]
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 1990, Klammer won a round of the prestigious European Touring Car Championship.[6]
Legacy
Klammer was a hero to Austrian ski racing fans and also to fans the world over for doing a great deal to promote the popularity of alpine ski racing.[citation needed] He is known as "The Kaiser" and also as the "Klammer Express."
In a 2015 interview with
In an interview with Tom Brokaw that aired on NBC on 13 February 2010, as part of their 2010 Winter Olympics coverage, American Olympian Bode Miller cited Klammer's style and approach to ski racing as a major source of inspiration for him.[citation needed]
Inspired by his younger brother Klaus, who was
World Cup results
Season titles
Season | Discipline |
---|---|
1975 | Downhill |
1976 | Downhill |
1977 | Downhill |
1978 | Downhill |
1983 | Downhill |
Season standings
Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant slalom |
Super G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1973 | 19 | 8 | — | 9 | not run |
4 | not awarded |
1974 | 20 | 5 | — | 10 | 2 | ||
1975 | 21 | 3 | — | 9 | 1 | ||
1976 | 22 | 4 | — | — | 1 | 4 | |
1977 | 23 | 3 | — | — | 1 | not awarded | |
1978 | 24 | 5 | — | — | 1 | ||
1979 | 25 | 51 | — | — | 19 | ||
1980 | 26 | 33 | — | — | 11 | — | |
1981 | 27 | 40 | — | — | 13 | — | |
1982 | 28 | 14 | — | — | 5 | — | |
1983 | 29 | 18 | — | — | not awarded |
1 | — |
1984 | 30 | 20 | — | — | 4 | — | |
1985 | 31 | 52 | — | — | 16 | — |
Race victories
- 26 wins - (25 downhill, 1 Alpine skiing combined)
Season | Date | Location | Discipline |
---|---|---|---|
1974 | 22 Dec 1973 | Schladming, Austria | Downhill |
1975 | 8 Dec 1974 | Val-d'Isère, France | Downhill |
15 Dec 1974 | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Downhill | |
5 Jan 1975 | Garmisch, West Germany | Downhill | |
11 Jan 1975 | Wengen, Switzerland | Downhill | |
18 Jan 1975 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | |
26 Jan 1975 | Innsbruck, Austria | Downhill | |
9 Mar 1975 | Jackson Hole, USA | Downhill | |
21 Mar 1975 | Val Gardena, Italy | Downhill | |
1976 | 12 Dec 1975 | Madonna di Campiglio, Italy | Downhill |
10 Jan 1976 | Wengen, Switzerland | Downhill | |
11 Jan 1976 | Combined | ||
17 Jan 1976 | Morzine, France | Downhill | |
25 Jan 1976 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | |
12 Mar 1976 | Aspen, USA | Downhill | |
1977 | 17 Dec 1976 | Val Gardena, Italy | Downhill |
8 Jan 1977 | Garmisch, West Germany | Downhill | |
15 Jan 1977 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | |
22 Jan 1977 | Wengen, Switzerland | Downhill | |
18 Feb 1977 | Laax, Switzerland | Downhill | |
1978 | 11 Dec 1977 | Val-d'Isère, France | Downhill |
11 Mar 1978 | Laax, Switzerland | Downhill | |
1982 | 6 Dec 1981 | Val-d'Isère, France | Downhill |
1983 | 20 Dec 1982 | Val Gardena, Italy | Downhill |
1984 | 21 Jan 1984 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill |
World championship results
Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom |
Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1974 | 20 | 20 | 10 | not run |
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).
Olympic results
Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom |
Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1976 | 22 | — | DNF1 | not run |
1 | not run |
1980 | 26 | — | — | —^ | ||
1984 | 30 | — | — | 10 |
^ Klammer was an alternate on the 1980 team and did not compete.
Video
- Video - Olympics - 05-Feb-1976 on YouTube
- Full 1976 Olympic Run on YouTube
References
- ^ a b c d e f Bell, Graham (19 October 2015). "Franz Klammer interview: 'Ski racing is my life and I wanted to do it no matter what'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- ^ Austria-Forum - Alpiner Skiweltcup 1974/75 - accessed 2023-04-04
- ^ FIS-ski.com - Innsbruck - 1975-01-26 - accessed 2010-03-06
- ^ FIS-ski.com Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine – World Cup season standings – Franz Klammer - 1973-85 - accessed 2010-03-06
- ^ Ski-db.com - Franz Klammer - results - accessed 2010-03-06
- ^ laureus.com Archived February 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Franz Klammer Foundation Archived 2011-01-29 at the Wayback Machine - (in German) - benefits seriously injured athletes - accessed 2011-01-08
External links
- Franz Klammer at FIS (alpine)
- Franz Klammer at Olympics.com
- Franz Klammer at Olympedia
- Franz Klammer at Ski-DB Alpine Ski Database