Franz Klammer - Background, Career, Legacy

Alpine skier, born in Mooswald, S Austria. He was the Olympic downhill champion in 1976, and the World Cup downhill champion five times (1975–8, 1983). In 1974–84 he won a record 25 World Cup downhill races.

Olympic medal record
Men’s Skiing
Gold	1976 Innsbruck	Downhill

Franz Klammer (born December 3, 1953) is a former Austrian skier who dominated the downhill event throughout much of the mid to late 1970s.

Background

Klammer was born in Mooswald, Austria, to a farming family.

Career

At the 1976 Winter Olympics Klammer won the gold medal in the downhill by 0.33 seconds from defending champion Bernhard Russi, who had gone out before him and set a challenging target.

Although the overall World Cup title remained elusive (largely because of skiers like Ingemar Stenmark and Klammer's concentration on the downhill), he won the World Cup downhill title 5 times—more than anyone else in the history of the sport.

At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Klammer could not repeat his triumphs of the past and finished in 10th place.

In an interview with Austrian television in 2006, Franz Klammer was asked about his greatest achievement.

Legacy

Klammer was a very popular skier, not only in Austria, but in other parts of the world when skiing was developing a large following.