Killy Has Touch of Achiever

In 1968, at the Winter Games in Grenoble, France, after the host nation’s Jean-Claude Killy had already won two gold medals in skiing, he went for a third in the slalom.

The race was held in fog, mist and shadows.

The sun shone through only once--during Killy’s first run, which was good enough to put him in first place.

That’s where he ended up, winning his third gold medal. And that’s the kind of life he has had. Killy remains one of the world’s most visible symbols of the urbane, sophisticated achiever.

Acclaimed Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan recently named Killy to his list of 10 greatest winter sports athletes of all time.

Born in 1943, Killy grew up in the resort town of Val d’Isere in the French Savoy Alps. He dropped out of school at 15 to join the French ski team.

The three gold medals he won at the Grenoble Games, when he was not quite 25, catapulted him to worldwide fame. At those Games he won skiing’s triple crown--the slalom (which he won on a disqualification), giant slalom and downhill.

U.S. sports marketer Mark McCormack, watching Killy in Grenoble, called him “an Arnold Palmer in ski pants.”

Now a successful businessman, Killy is on the board of directors of multi-national corporations such as Coca-Cola and Rolex.

And since 1995, he has been a member of the International Olympic Committee. He also has had a long association with the Tour de France cycling event.

In 1992, he co-chaired the Winter Games in Albertville, France. It was there, he said, that he learned to fly a helicopter--because the venues were so spread out, Killy needed to maintain contact with the mayors of 17 towns in seven valleys.

He served as vice president of what the IOC calls a “coordination commission” for the Salt Lake Games--that is, the IOC’s liaison and inspection committee.

He is president of the IOC’s coordination commission for the next Winter Games, in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

Looking ahead four years, he said, “I’m very confident. I’m as confident as I was four years ago here--when everyone was down on Salt Lake City.”