FRANZ KLAMMER DOWNHILL MOVIE

Starting in 15th position, Klammer was the last of the top seeds, and knew that Russi had set a blistering pace and led by over a half-second. He was the defending World Cup downhill champion, and had won the three previous downhills in January at Wengen, Morzine, and Kitzbühel, and also won the previous year's race on the same Patscherkofel course. In the Olympic test event at Patscherkofel at Innsbruck in January 1975, Klammer had defeated defending Olympic champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, the runner-up, by nearly a half-second.Įntering the 1976 Winter Olympics, the 22-year-old Klammer was the favorite to take the gold medal in the downhill at Innsbruck in his native Austria. Klammer won that race and every other downhill that 1975 season, except Megève, where one of his skis came off without this incident, he would have won the overall World Cup title in March 1975, due to a good slalom result two days before at Chamonix, which would have granted him at least a third place (15 points) for the AK-combined of slalom Chamonix / downhill Megève. This time Collombin broke his back in a training run, unfortunately ending his promising career. In December 1974, Collombin fell at Val-d'Isère, as he had the previous year. After beating Collombin and Russi at Schladming in December 1973 under terrible conditions, Collombin bested him at Garmisch, Avoriaz, and Wengen. The following season he finished second in the downhill standings behind Roland Collombin of Switzerland, his nemesis that season. 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. 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. The last, 11 years later in 1984, at the age of 30, is worthy of a second movie.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.

He won his first aged only 19 in 1973 and including four victories in the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel.

FRANZ KLAMMER DOWNHILL MOVIE

Both projects follow on from the success of the 2016 movie Eddie the Eagle which cost $23 million to produce but has so far grossed $46.2 million, illustrating that movies about famous skiers can be profitable in the mainstream.įranz Klammer can be considered the greatest downhill skier of all time having won 25 downhill races, a record that still stands today in the men’s race. The film’s launch was announced just before the Hahnenkamm weekend and on the same day that another film was announced focusing on Norway’s more recent great ski racer Aksel Lund Svindal. The fact that he took the lead as he crossed the line he puts down largely to the will power of the vast crowd lining the slope. In interviews decades later Klammer said, “By the time I walked into the starting gate, I knew I am going to win,” however he was running behind the 1972 Olympic winner Swiss competitor Bernhard Russi at the first two splits on his descent. The movie, due to be released worldwide this autumn, will focus on the events leading up to the “Ski Kaiser’s” legendary victory in the downhill on 5 February 1976 on the Patscherkofel at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck in front of a 60,000 strong home crowd. A film based on one of a key moment in the career of arguably the world’s best-known and best-loved downhill ski racer, Franz Klammer, is about to go into production.

Franz klammer downhill