No problem, lets meet tomorrow afternoon, he said. Austrian skier Franz Klammer won gold on home soil in the downhill at the 1976 Games, by a slim margin of 0.33 seconds. But young Franz loved the snow, skiing to school in the winter and climbing up hills on his own to come racing back down. I think he won for everybody, you know? [5], 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. It was the best babysitter because I was already out there on skis, skiing up and down to a little village up in the mountain. Become a member and join a community of people who care about skiing! So that was the important thing., They were married in 1979. They also had a great time in California, so it was no surprise when Arnold came the following year to Beaver Creek to encourage his friend, who clinched two more gold medals at the 1999 Ski World Championships. Klammer, the 1976 Olympic downhill gold medalist, said he had idolized Sailer, telling the Austria Press Agency, "As a small boy, I wanted to be just like him." Newsweek wrote in 1996 that. I remember watching that gold medal run. The man to beat was the Swiss competitor Bernhard Russi, title-holder after his victory at the Sapporo Games in 1972 and who intended to retain his sceptre. 14/11/2009 LICENCE: Creative Commons. Alpine Skiing. Klammer first showed signs of promise in the second half of the 1973 World Cup season, finishing second in the St. Anton downhill behind Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, the reigning Olympic and World Cup downhill champion. Klammer's gold-medal-winning downhill run at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics was anything but dull. The pressure on the young farm boy from Mooswald was immense. To film with authenticity, producers had new equipment manufactured to make it look old. The new downhill skis produced ad hoc for the Albertville course were shorter and narrower at the middle. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to get the news and post directly to your e-mail. I was fourteen and was at a friends house. [4], 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. The young Austrian Franz Klammer is considered undoubtedly the favourite for the 1976 Olympic downhill race in Innsbruck. This is not a good story for a film because you need the emotional roller coaster. Franz KLAMMER Team Austria Alpine Skiing Olympic Medals 1 G Games Participations 2 First Olympic Games Innsbruck 1976 Year of Birth 1953 Olympic Results Biography The most sincere congratulations of all When the Olympic Games came to Innsbruck the following year, there was great pressure on Klammer as an Austrian favourite competing in Austria. When Klammers time at the starting gate came he knew exactly what needed to be done. Now the snow has arrived to give today's heroes a chance to shine on a. The Klammer story, yah, it was epic, said Schmied, a Styrian-born writer and director who, like most Austrians, was on skis before he was two. Salmina was at Kitzbhel in 2003 the day Rahlves won. The course was rougher when a nervous Klammer pushed himself out of the starting hut. He is not only legendary as a skier, hes just a very great person.. Klammer, age 19, followed this up with a third at St. 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). Franz is a testimonial for skiing, said Kresse. It would also usher in a new era of ski racing as a global sport while hundreds of millions of viewers watched his Klammer Style run to Olympic gold. After his skiing career, he became a racing driver and raced touring cars until the 1990s. Annemarie Moser-Proell dominated her time as no other skier before and after her. We enjoyed watching Katarina claim her second Olympic title after a brilliant show. For days everyone talked about that thrilling ski run. [] 3. Nearly two hours later, they came back smiling. He was adorable, said Witt of her time with La Bomba. Klammer created The Franz Klammer Foundation which benefits seriously injured athletes in honor of his brother. Innsbruck 1976 | Olympic Winter games. Championships in Schladming in February 2013. Instead, it focuses on the microcosm of his relationship with Eva as they are spirited away from the finish in an ambulance before she drives him from Tyrol back to Carinthia the next day. He just went down the straight line which normally everybody said its just impossible, you cant stand this. The first choice to play the role of Franz was Julian Waldner. In many ways, Klammer was an unlikely champion. The other favorites were not as gutsy or crazy. He also remains close to Russi. Didier Cuche won his fifth Hahnenkamm last January. [1] The following season he finished second in the downhill standings behind Roland Collombin of Switzerland. Patrick Ortliebs win was the first surprise of the mens Olympics events at Val dIsre, yet he confirmed his success in the following seasons with significant triumphs on the World Cup tour, including winning the legendary Hahnenkamm race at Kitzbhel. His tiny village of Mooswald, north of Villach, was situated in the mountains but without a ski lift. To shoot the film, producers literally took over Patscherkofel, taking the revered race course back in time. I had seen in training that a few skiers, including Ken Read of Canada, had tested a straighter yet very risky line there. Since the previous season the charismatic newcomer has won virtually every race.The pressure from the media and the public and the hopes of an entire nation are off the scales. The nickname became particularly apt after he survived his spectacular flight, several meters above the slope, and the post-landing cartwheels in soft snow. Franz Klammer is one of the all-time legendsof skiing. ! And if youre a ski racing purist, yes, you may detect a bit of familiarity in the style of Klammer racing crazily down the piste. With the original incredible commentary by ABC USA broadcasters Frank Gifford and Bob Beattie. After beating Collombin and Russi at Schladming in December 1973 under terrible conditions, Collombin bested him at Garmisch, Avoriaz and Wengen. Just past halfway he nearly went off the course, but he kept picking up speed, reaching near 80 miles per hour at the bottom of the course. Jean-Claude Killy. A great career only becomes exceptional with the ultimate title an Olympic gold medal. And he took a three-win streak, including his second straight Hahnenkamm win, into the Olympics. In 1975 and 1976 he was the best downhill skier in the world. Nobody had ever had a string of victories like that. Only a few months later, Franz told me how he managed to clinch that title after his fantastic run. They also required more feeling from the racers, who needed to steer them continuously from the entrance to the exit of each turn. Franz Klammer In 1976, How the legendary Austrian skier won one of the most exciting Olympic downhill races of all time. She was always supporting me. While Klammer had been consistent in his success on the skis, Fischer and his team had innovated a new product. In bib no. ", In a 2015 interview with Graham Bell for the Daily Telegraph, Klammer attributed his success to being the first downhiller to carve a whole turn from start to finish, contrasting his style with skiers of the previous generation such as Karl Schranz and Jean-Claude Killy who would skid at the start of a turn before engaging in a carve. Hoping for a low start number in the draw, Klammer drew 15 last in the top seed. But Kresse, a notable figure in marketing, found it hard to bring his dream to closure. Three years ago, Kresse tried one more time. He suffered disappointment at the Sarajevo Games in 1984 with 10th place, and competed for the last time in March 1985 at Aspen with a World Cup record of 26 wins, 45 podiums and 87 top 10 places. Every 4 years at the Winter Olympics, the premier event is the mens downhill. The FULL unedited original legendary run of. I couldnt stop thinking about it. Olymipc downhill champion 1976 (Innsbruck). Jan. 01, 1977 - Franz Klammer the 'winner' 5 th downhill - race of Stock Photo, Royalty Free Image: 69487594 - Alamy . It was a really fun course with all the elements of a good downhill, said Rahlves. I made a huge jump and thought I would crash, yet I managed to survive and land on my skis. I knew I only had a small chance to win, he, told the author. Others had tried to make a film about Franz Klammer for quite some time and nobody quite got it correct. He won his first aged only 19 in 1973 and including four victories in the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel. A veteran journalist on the world alpine racing circuit recallsmoments of high dramaand humorfrom the Winter Games. We all just knew he was going to crash. The media were omnipresent. He remains the king of the downhill, the most successful skier of anyone in his discipline in the World Cup. This is all the sweeter when it is won in front of more than 60,000 focused supporters and millions of Austrians gathered in front of their TV sets across the country. And Klammer was winning big on its C4 skis. Franz Klammer won the Downhill skiing event in 4 consecutive World Cup seasons from 1975 to 1978. The story of Franz Klammer is the story of ski racing in Carinthia. Rahlves wasnt even three years old when Klammer won gold. Franz Klammer gets police protection from an enthusiastic crowd after his victory. Klammer, a simple young man, was more comfortable with the C4s. Across all of Austria, there was nary a single person on a village street. 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Nicknamed "Gold-Rosi" in her native Germany, her gold medal in the Downhill at the 1976 Olympics was the only international win in the event during her career. Franz Klammer is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria..who overwhelmingly dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup sea. But repeated attempts have failed. Twice he took the concept to filmmakers and twice it went nowhere. Franz Klammer's Gold Medal Run - Innsbruck 1976 Dish Waterhands 111 subscribers 188K views 13 years ago This is nearly the entire Franz Klammer Gold Medal Run from the Innsbruck Winter. One of his strongest opponents was the very determined Annemarie Proell. Pepi Fischer was omnipresent, pushing hard to force Klammer to use his new ski. Klammer's 1:45.73 was more than thirty-two seconds faster. Thanks to special accreditations, we were standing right at the rink when Witt started to perform. I had to look into it is there even a movie there? he said. He is considered the best-ever Downhill skier who dominated the competitions in the seventies and the eighties. Frank Gifford called this event and he nailed it. Possibly yes, he answered with a grin. In the summer of 1975, in the lead-up to the Olympics, the Austrian team held a training camp in Tunisia where he coincidentally met a young girl from Vienna. In an interview with Austrian television in 2006, the 52-year-old Klammer was asked about his greatest achievement. Two or three times we tried to bring a good story. Showings in the United States and Canada are pending. He nearly went down on the first curve, but saved it on one ski. Where to find Franz Klammer 1976 Innsbruck downhill video? At the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, (then Yugoslavia, now Bosnia), Klammer finished a disappointing tenth on a less-than-challenging course on Bjelanica. I think that was one of my strengths just to improvise.. Klammer and Strobl became lifelong friends, sharing a hunting lodge in late September before the films debut in Zurich. At the last Olympics in Nagano, after a five-day delay, Trinkl was the only Austrian to win a medal in the downhill. Everyone got nervous after defending Olympic champion Bernhard Russi from Switzerland set the best time after a nearly flawless run. Note: I don't have a model release for this subject He won for the nation, for every Austrian skier. And the two met that night at The Londoner forging both a friendship and a partnership in telling the story of ski racing that has spanned nearly two decades. This time, Alberto could not attend her performance, but Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf was sitting next to me. As a consolation prize, Proell won the FIS gold medal for her success in the three-event combined, yet she apparently threw the medal away after receiving it. He answered that although his gold medal at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck was generally regarded as his greatest career achievement, winning at Kitzbhel in 1984 meant something very special to him, considering he hadn't won there in seven years. On race day, she stayed laser-focused as she made her way down the course, despite strong gusts of wind that disturbed some of her main rivals, including Nadig. At a trade show in Berlin, he met Vienna filmmaker Jakob Pochlatko of epo-film, a third-generation family-owned production company. As I approached it, I made a last-second decision to go for it instead of following my usual rounder line. Nobody was doing anything. Even today, he is emotional in telling it. Im extremely happy. He was adorable, said Witt of her time with La Bomba. Game 6 of the 1975 World Series Reds v. Red Sox 4. That December, he kicked off the 1973-74 World Championship year with the first of his 25 World Cup downhill wins claiming a victory in Schladming. Instead, he was born in the southernmost Austrian state of Carinthia, a region with lesser-known mountains and a bit outside the ski racing spotlight. Its like Hermann Maier for me his program was at such a high level and he had everything taken care of for him. I knew I will do it, he explains, I was full of confidence, I knew I can pull it off, and at any time, I learned how to win a race: concentrate, just on your race, you and the mountain and not thinking about anybody else. The feats of this exceptional downhill skier include this total domination of the 1974-1975 season, with eight victories in the nine races of the programme, a run, straddling the two following seasons, of 10 consecutive wins and another record: five small discipline crystal globes, won consecutively from 1975 to 1978, then in 1983. 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. He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, winning the downhill at Patscherkofel by a margin of 0.33 seconds with a time of 1:45.73. That honor went to a little-known Austrian from Lech, Patrick Ortlieb, who had never won a major event. Many of the top guns failed to control their line in the tricky parts of the course. He was really experienced and I learned so much from Gerald in the sense that he told me whats going on in the minds of downhill skiers and how they how they how they operate.. His formidable appearance, his determination on the slopes, and his numerous victories in the weeks prior to his trip to Japan had led reporters to use rougher nicknames, like The Beast, which Maier didnt like at all. Swiss favorite Bernhard Russi, who two years earlier had won Olympic gold in Sapporo, was 13th. In a statement released by NBC News on Sunday, his family said Gifford died suddenly at his Connecticut home of. We met in Tunisia, in Africa, on the beach, recalled Klammer. His final World Cup race was in March 1985 at Aspen, Colorado. While much of the storyline of the film is the tension Klammer felt and his burgeoning romance with Eva, producer Pochlatko knew that the true heart of the film was how he portrayed one of the most thrilling ski runs of all time 45 years later. We were lucky to get him here.. NEW YORK - Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford has died. Most of this was not known in 1976, when Franz Klammer had the weight of a nation on his shoulder as he embarked on his unforgettable journey down the slopes of Patscherkofel. Her last victoryin the Olympic downhill at Lake Placid in 1980was particularly emotional and a great story, too. And there is this one teacher who says, follow your dreams, or whatever. So I really wanted to give the audience a real feel for the people in the story.. 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