Franz Klammer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Franz Klammer Alpine skiing
Franz Klammer
Franz Klammer in November 2009
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday 3rd December 1953 (age 66)
place of birth Mooswald , Austria
Career
discipline Downhill , giant slalom ,
combination
society WSV Unterdrautal (municipality of Paternion )
National squad since 1973
status resigned
End of career March 15, 1985
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
World championships 2 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
Olympic rings winter Olympics
gold Innsbruck 1976 Departure
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
gold St. Moritz 1974 combination
gold Innsbruck 1976 Departure
silver St. Moritz 1974 Departure
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut December 15, 1972
 Individual world cup victories 26th
 Overall World Cup 3. ( 1974/75 , 1976/77 )
 Downhill World Cup 1. (1974/75, 1975/76 ,
1976/77, 1977/78 ,
1982/83 )
 Giant Slalom World Cup 9. ( 1972/73 , 1974/75)
 Combination World Cup 4. (1975/76)
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Departure 25th 10 6th
 Giant slalom 0 0 1
 combination 1 0 2
 

Franz Klammer (born December 3, 1953 in Mooswald , Carinthia ) is a former Austrian ski racer . He became the 1976 Olympic downhill champion and is the most successful racer of this discipline in the history of the World Cup with 25 downhill victories and five times winning the Downhill World Cup .

Childhood and youth

Franz Klammer, son of a simple mountain farming family, was on skis from an early age. Since there was no lift in his hometown of Mooswald, he always had to trudge up the slopes on foot or take the bus to the next ski area 30 kilometers away. He started racing at the age of 14 after showing that he was always superior when racing with friends. At the age of 17, Klammer made the jump from the Carinthian national team to the C-team of the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV). The 18-year-old achieved his first major success on December 11, 1971, when he won the European Cup downhill in Bad Kleinkirchheim .

Ski career

course

This victory made the new ÖSV downhill trainer Charly Kahr aware of Klammer. The talented Carinthian competed in the World Cup for the first time in the final races of the 1971/72 season at the giant slalom in Val Gardena (25th place) and the slalom in Madonna di Campiglio (22nd place with start number 48) and proved at that time that he too had considerable potential in the technical disciplines (he reached several top ten places in World Cup giant slalom, including third place on March 3-4, 1973 in Mont Sainte-Anne ), but was subsequently supported by Kahr more and more to the downhill. The first major media attention was on the occasion of his second place in the descent of the Austrian championships on March 10, 1972 in Hinterstoder , the first top ten place he achieved on December 15, 1972 in the descent from Val Gardena with rank 5 and his first podium on February 3, 1973 at the descent in St. Anton with start no. 22. Still in group 2, where he started no. 16, he achieved his first downhill victory in the World Cup on the Planai in Schladming on December 22nd, 1973. With an average speed of 111.251 km / h, it was the fastest World Cup race for a long time. On March 14, 1993, Armin Assinger reached 112.37 km / h in the Sierra Nevada .

Franz Klammer (1976)

Klammer won the gold medal in downhill skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck , having previously won the silver medal and the combined gold medal in this discipline at the 1974 Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz . He celebrated 26 victories in World Cup races and five successes in the Downhill World Cup (1975–1978 and 1983). With 25 downhill victories , he is the most successful downhill skier in World Cup history, ahead of Peter Müller with 19 victories. He won all of the classic downhill runs, including the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel four times, the Lauberhorn race in Wengen three times and on the Saslong in Val Gardena four times.

In 1975 he won first in Wengen on January 11th with a record lead of 3.54 seconds, while a week later in Kitzbühel, where he was injured due to a training fall, only a hundredth of a second separated him from Gustav Thöni . A serious fall in downhill skiing in Megève on February 1, 1975, where the binding opened after a long jump, probably cost the Carinthian victory in the overall World Cup, because in the concluding parallel slalom in Ortisei , for which he scored 240 points ( ex aequo with competitors Gustav Thöni and Ingemar Stenmark ), he had no chance against the technicians from the start. In the end, it was only 3rd in the overall World Cup ranking behind Thöni and Stenmark. Nevertheless, after winning the Downhill World Cup in 1975 for the first time, he was awarded the Skieur d'Or by the International Association of Ski Journalists (AIJS) .

The dangerousness of the sport became evident in 1977 in a serious accident involving his then 16-year-old brother Klaus Klammer. During an FIS descent on February 20, 1977 on the "H 2000" on the Hochstein in Lienz , East Tyrol , a devastating fall with the result of a paraplegic syndrome abruptly ended his career.

At the start of the 1977/78 season on November 27th, Klammer won the National Cup descent in the World Series of Skiing on the Nationale slope in Crans-Montana . In the World Cup, he only achieved two wins, two podium finishes and four other top ten places, one of which was a combination. After Klammer had dominated the Downhill World Cup for four years, he fell into a form low in the 1978/79 season . He did not achieve a podium for three years and also missed qualifying for the Olympic team in 1980, which is why he was unable to defend his gold medal from 1976. It was not until the beginning of the 1981/82 season that he celebrated his next victory in Val-d'Isère . In 1983 he won the Downhill World Cup again. He celebrated his last World Cup victory in 1984 in Kitzbühel. The “Downhill Emperor” drove his last World Cup race on March 14, 1985 in Aspen . On April 20, 1985, he announced his resignation.

Olympic gold medal in 1976

At the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck , Klammer won gold in the downhill on the Patscherkofel . In view of his superiority in the downhill he was considered a big favorite to win the Olympic gold in 1976, which contributed to the enormous pressure of expectation that weighed on him. In fact, on February 5, the expected duel with Bernhard Russi , the 1972 Olympic champion , took place in front of 60,000 spectators . First, the Swiss set a best time. Klammer started with start number 15, when the slope was a bit more ribbed and therefore more difficult to drive on. In the meantime, after a serious mistake in the upper part, he was only in third place 19 hundredths of a second behind, caught up in the lower part (thanks to a risky driving style with a direct line) and won with a lead of 33 hundredths of a second. His ski manufacturer had provided him with a new model, the so-called "hole ski", but Klammer then buckled on his tried and tested skis.

Professional ski racing in the USA

After his foray into motorsport, Klammer returned to skiing in 1988 and competed in professional ski races in the USA until 1998 , winning the Tournament of Champions twice and seven titles in downhill and parallel slalom.

Motorsport career

Franz Klammer
Nation: AustriaAustria
DTM
First race: Wunstorf 1985
Teams (manufacturers)
1985 Alfa Romeo , 1986–1988 Mercedes
statistics
Starts Victories Poles SR
49 - 1 -
Podiums: 1
Overall wins: -
Points: 208,500
Status: end of season 1988

After retiring from ski racing in 1985, Klammer was active as a car racing driver until 1988: He began his second career as a motor sportsman in the team of the former Formula 1 racing driver Helmut Marko . RSM-Marko started in 1985 in races for the DTM with the two drivers Franz Klammer and Peter Oberndorfer with an Alfa Romeo GTV. Harald Schwarz was the team manager at the time. In 1986 RSM-Marko switched to Mercedes with Klammer / Oberndorfer. Franz Klammer was later also Austrian touring car champion, recorded several victories in the European touring car championship ( Nürburgring ) and in 1000 km competitions (Bathurst, Australia).

Klammer has been an active golfer since the mid-1980s .

Private life

Entry into the fashion industry turned out to be unsuccessful.

As a consultant and representative, Franz Klammer works for several companies and institutions and is still very much involved in sports, especially skiing. Since November 2008 he has been the sports coordinator of the Austrian Anadi Bank AG. In addition to his involvement in the Olympic movement, he is an ambassador for the United Nations and a member of the Academy of the Laureus World Sports Awards in Monte Carlo.

Klammer has been married since 1979, has two daughters and lives in Vienna . He has just become the first grandfather of a grandson.

Others

Klammer set up its own foundation in 1998, which mainly uses the money to help young, injured athletes. The reason for this was his brother's paraplegia. After his severe fall, he was only able to do rehabilitation on the basis of goodwill from his father's insurance . The Klammer Foundation collects the money for this from golf tournaments, among other things.

For several years now, Klammer has been writing glosses on current events in the Alpine Ski World Cup or the Alpine World Ski Championships.

He is an ambassador for the climate protection organization R20 Regions of Climate Action .

successes

winter Olympics

World championships

World Cup ratings

season total Departure Giant slalom combination
space Points space Points space Points space Points
1972/73 8th. 93 4th 62 9. 31 - -
1973/74 5. 125 2. 100 10. 17th - -
1974/75 3. 240 1. 125 9. 31 - -
1975/76 4th 181 1. 125 - - 4th 25th
1976/77 3. 203 1. 125 - - - -
1977/78 5. 70 1. 96 - - - -
1978/79 51. 23 19th 23 - - - -
1979/80 33. 27 11. 27 - - - -
1980/81 40. 37 13. 37 - - - -
1981/82 14th 71 5. 71 - - - -
1982/83 18th 95 1. 95 - - - -
1983/84 20th 79 4th 79 - - - -
1984/85 52. 23 16. 23 - - - -

World Cup victories

He achieved a total of 26 World Cup victories (25 × downhill, 1 × combination), plus 10 second places and 9 third places.

date place country discipline
22nd December 1973 Schladming Austria Departure
December 8th 1974 Val d'Isère France Departure
15th December 1974 St. Moritz Switzerland Departure
January 5, 1975 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Germany Departure
January 11, 1975 Wengen Switzerland Departure
January 18, 1975 Kitzbühel Austria Departure
January 26, 1975 innsbruck Austria Departure
March 9, 1975 Jackson Hole United States Departure
March 21, 1975 Val Gardena Italy Departure
December 12th 1975 Madonna di Campiglio Italy Departure
January 10, 1976 Wengen Switzerland Departure
January 11, 1976 Wengen Switzerland combination
January 17, 1976 Morzine France Departure
January 25, 1976 Kitzbühel Austria Departure
March 12, 1976 Aspen United States Departure
17th December 1976 Val Gardena Italy Departure
18th December 1976 Val Gardena Italy Departure
January 8, 1977 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Germany Departure
January 15, 1977 Kitzbühel Austria Departure
January 22, 1977 Wengen Switzerland Departure
18th February 1977 Laax Switzerland Departure
December 11, 1977 Val d'Isère France Departure
March 11, 1978 Laax Switzerland Departure
December 6, 1981 Val d'Isère France Departure
December 20, 1982 Val Gardena Italy Departure
January 21, 1984 Kitzbühel Austria Departure

Austrian championships

Awards

In addition, he was voted Carinthian Sportsman of the Year eight times by the Carinthian Sports Press Club (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1984).

literature

  • Klammer Franz. Report on a career. Edited by Josef Huber, Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna - Heidelberg, 1976, ISBN 3-8000-3134-5 .
  • Franz Klammer. 50 golden years. Rupert Leutgeb, Steinbrunn 2003, ISBN 3-902244-00-3 .
  • Franz Klammer. A life like a novel. Recorded by Adi Kornfeld, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-200-00038-4 .
  • Heroes and idols. Sports stars in Austria. Edited by Matthias Marschik (with an article on Franz Klammer by Georg Spitaler: Franz Klammer. Glückskind and Skikaiser. ). Studies Verlag, Innsbruck - Vienna - Bozen 2006, ISBN 978-3-7065-4253-1 .
  • From Grossglockner to Klammer stitch. 100 years of skiing in Carinthia. Pp. 41–44, Franz Klammer (portrait), ed. Landesschiverband and Kleine Zeitung, Carinthia Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-85378-622-2 .
  • The day it rained Franz Klammers: a highly fictional novel. Gion Mathias Cavelty , Lector Books 2007, ISBN 978-3-906913-10-0 .
  • The day it rained in 449 Franz Klammers. Radio play, SRF 2017

Web links

Commons : Franz Klammer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruggmann towered over everyone . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 17, 1972, p. 15 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ^ No time to protest against R. Thöni . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 18, 1972, p. 15 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  3. ↑ Sensation at the beginning . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 11, 1972, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  4. ^ FIS biography.
  5. ↑ Bracket blew up Swiss duo . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 4, 1973, p. 13 , leader line 5 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  6. ↑ Klammer's triumph on the ice floor . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 23, 1973, p. 15 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  7. ↑ Departure: break off! Bracket brother in mortal danger . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 21, 1977, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  8. ↑ winner Franz Klammer: Hole Shock overcome . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 28, 1977, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  9. ^ Arnold Schwarzenegger: Why Trump is 'wrong' on climate change. CNN, January 29, 2019, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  10. ^ "Annemarie Moser and Franz Klammer Austria's athletes 1975" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 20, 1975, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  11. ↑ «“ Football live ”is something very special» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 18, 1977, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  12. ↑ "Honor the athletes and the 1500 m record" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna May 21, 1978, p. 23 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  13. ↑ «Golden Bracket» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 25, 1975, p. 32 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  14. ^ State awards until 2008 ( Memento from June 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved September 13, 2011 (PDF; 300 kB).
  15. ↑ The favorite for Carinthia's athlete of the year is “Mathias Mayer”. At: Villach.awm.at.
  16. ^ Reto Ott: Premiere: «The day on which it rained in 449 Franz Klammers». Swiss Radio and Television SRF, November 17, 2017, accessed on November 21, 2017 (Swiss Standard German).
personal data
SURNAME Klammer, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer and motor sportsman
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd December 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Mooswald , Carinthia