The following season he finished second in the downhill standings behind Roland Collombin of Switzerland. Moritz and a third in the giant slalom at Mont Sainte-Anne (the only time he finished on the podium in a World Cup Giant Slalom in his career). Klammer, age 19, followed this up with a third at St. Anton downhill behind Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, the reigning Olympic and World Cup downhill champion. Klammer first showed signs of promise in the second half of the 1973 World Cup season, finishing second in the St. ( July 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification.

They have two daughters, Sophie and Stephanie. Klammer is married to Eva since 1979: the couple met in 1975 when he was in Tunisia at a fitness camp with the Austrian ski team. He spent 13 seasons on the World Cup circuit, from December 1972 to March 1985. 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. He had a tough struggle to make the Austrian ski team, traditionally dominated by the states of Tyrol and Salzburg. Klammer started racing at the relatively late age of 14, competing in the winter whilst working on the family farm during the summer after he dropped out of school. His home village did not have any ski lifts, so as a child he climbed up the pasture behind his house to ski downhill. For my taste I would like to have some schuss and then make a turn, have downhills like they used to be.Born into a farming family in Mooswald, community Fresach, Carinthia, and like many alpine farm boys, Klammer skied to school each winter day. But that’s how they make downhill courses nowadays - it’s one turn after another, one turn after another. It is clear he is nostalgic for the old days of ski racing, and the relatively benign course at the Jeongseon Alpine Center, designed by his old racing rival Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, is not to his taste. At 64, he still cuts an imposing, silver-haired figure, resplendent in green lederhosen and bright red socks at the Austria House where the Alpine nation makes its Olympic hangout. In his pomp, Klammer was renowned for the fearless abandon with which he flew down the slopes. The route to victory, he said, would be “not making mistakes, not missing a gate, not missing a turn. So you have to be smooth and still let it run.” Here it’s easier, it’s more grinding, you don’t have the advantage when you have guts and when you really attack it.

“The downhill in Sochi was very, very good for him because it was steep, it was rough and at that time he was the best in those conditions.

No man has won back-to-back Olympic downhill golds and the Austrian said conditions here would suit Mayer less than they did four years ago. But he always makes some mistakes, so when he can avoid mistakes he will be up there and he could defend his title,” Klammer told Reuters in an interview on the eve of the Olympic race. He also rates the chances of his countryman Matthias Mayer winning a second successive downhill gold - although with one important caveat. “He’s really strong, he’s my favorite but also the Austrians are quite good, so if everything goes right we will make a medal, definitely,” said the 1976 Olympic champion, whose name is still synonymous with the glamour and danger of Alpine ski racing. PYEONGCHANG (Reuters) - Austrian great Franz Klammer says the winner of the men’s downhill in Pyeongchang will be the skier who hits every turn right and makes the fewest mistakes - and he thinks that will be Switzerland’s Beat Feuz.

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