French skier and entrepreneur, the second man in history to win the Triple Sweep in the Alpine men’s skiing in the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, 1968. Taking the gold medal in downhill, slalom and giant slalom and focusing on speed as opposed to style, Killy helped create the modern racing style that revolutionized the sport.
The son of a former Spitfire pilot for Free France who moved his family to the alpine village of Val d’Isere in 1945 and opened a ski shop, Killy learned to ski for the fun of it. “I did it because it was the only thing you could do in Val d’Isere. In 1950, there was no hockey, nothing….I had no master plan, no career plan. My ambition was applied to next week, never more than that, because we didn’t have much information on the outside world.”
At 19, Killy joined the French team, whose coach was impressed by his daredevil style and came to the US for the first time. Three years later he was entered in all three men’s Alpine events at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympics, but he fell in the downhill, lost a binding in the slalom and finished fifth in the giant slalom. The agony of defeat only made him work harder.
By age 25 he was considered the world’s top skier, which he proved at the Winter Games in Grenoble in 1968, winning the downhill by 0.08 of a second followed by the easily won slalom. The result of the final event required a decision in the committee room, where Killy was moved to first place from second place on grounds of a technicality. He then went on to win the World Professional Skiing Title in 1973. Within five years, the world’s top skier was a multi-millionaire from endorsements for sporting equipment.
In 1972 Killy made a film entitled “Snow Job” and subsequently married leading lady Danielle Gaubert. Danielle had recently been divorced from Rhadames Trujillo, son of the dictator of the Dominican Republic. Killy adopted her two children from the marriage and their daughter Emilie was born the following year. A family life of wealth, domestic bliss and globetrotting ended when Danielle died of cancer on 11/3/1987.
In addition to presiding over the Olympic Winter Games at Albertville in 1992, Killy owns two ski shops in France and heads Killy Technical Eyewear. He makes his home in Switzerland.
Link to Wikipedia biography