Jean-Claude Killy: France's king of the ski slopes

Contemporary Review, March, 2005 by Barnett Singer

The next Killy incarnation involved him flying myriad miles in the eighties as a lobbyist for a French group desiring to make Albertville (and surrounding ski areas) the site of 1992's winter Olympics. Almost as in an important race, the voting was close, but Killy's team won, and he was then impelled (not without misgivings) to become president of the organizational committee for those games.

Would this give him down time he loved, such as circling Lake Geneva on a bike at predictably urgent speeds? More, would it allow him to care for his wife, suddenly stricken with cancer and operated on in August, 1986, then fighting for her life? Killy put everything into finding top specialists for her, dropped his important bureaucratic position, but ultimately lost Danielle in 1987. Despite the presence of his children (including those from Trujillo), he felt alone and down.

He finally returned as co-chair (with Barnier) of Games preparations, and could one doubt that those preparations were minutely exhaustive? Killy knew how long prior debts from the Grenoble games had lingered; so for a man who had rubbed shoulders with America's business elite, budget was now an idee fixe.

Killy's input also rewarded skiers who could overcome difficulties on entirely redesigned courses at Val d'Isere. He consulted with top French skiers who had followed his era, and with others who knew their stuff when it came to designing bobsled runs or hockey rinks.

Despite the fact that these winter Olympic events were spread out over a huge area, and that some teams resorted to their own chefs, eschewing French food, the weather cooperated (with one exception), and all went well, fuelled by the work of 25,000 volunteers, and with almost a million people buying tickets. One of Killy's ancillary ambitions had also been fulfilled: to upgrade roads, tunnels, water purification facilities, and sewers of the entire Savoyard region.

Through the nineties, Killy continued to lend his name to prestigious enterprises, for example, as chair of Coca-Cola Beverages in France, and of the Tour de France bicycle racing organization. Even when it came to Killy skiwear, his parkas were naturally among the warmest to be had!

As with so many sports, the dawn of a new century brought nostalgia for a supposedly vanished golden age. The ex-star Franz Klammer bemoaned skiing's decline, and he and Killy headlined a Race of Legends in January, 2000.

Killy's agent extraordinaire, McCormack, passed away in May, 2003; but Killy remains much consulted, especially on afore-mentioned planning for Turin's Winter Olympics. And 'L'Espace Killy' of Val d'Isere is still a big travel hit for skiers wanting fine snow and slopes, particularly Britons.

Jean-Claude always did things right.