The memories of the skiing legend: “In 1975 I won eight downhill runs in a row, and it could have been nine”
Winning a downhill is never easy, but winning eight in a row is almost impossible. Except for him, Kaiser Franz Klammer, who on the stage of the Trento Festival does not want to reveal his secrets: “That year (’75) I was in a state of grace, I gave half a second to everyone in every race. Even today no one has managed to do it”. He smiles, and in that smile there is all the legend of Austrian skiing. Four consecutive World Cups, a fifth in ’83, twenty-five victories in descent: record numbers that still stand the test of time. “And it could have been nine – he says – with that of ’75, the only year in which the World Cup ended with a parallel race. I lost my ski in Megeve, goodbye to the ninth consecutive descent. I had great rivals: Stenmark, the best in slalom; Thoeni, the most complete. I was the fastest. I’m the only one who never fell: I lost a ski, but I never fell, not even in training”. And then Innsbruck, the home Olympics, where the “Kaiser” could not afford to lose. “Plank wanted to beat me in Austria. But that time it wasn’t possible.”
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Klammer indulges in even the roughest memories: “The overalls were completely smooth, if you fell you couldn’t stop until you hit a bale of straw or a wooden fence. In Schladming there was a place where Canadians always fell, we called it the house of the Canadians. Luckily times have changed now.” When he talks about the Streif, the Kitzbühel track, his voice becomes lower: “It’s the most difficult of all. An outsider can’t win on tracks like this, only a true champion.” And even today, observing the new protagonists of the World Cup, the judgment is clear: “They are better performing, with superior athletic preparation, but mistakes are not forgiving. Paris can win at Milan-Cortina, but it depends on how the season starts. The level will certainly be very high”. Despite the decades that have passed, the former champion remains close to the sport: “I often play golf, it has become my passion. I even train on the golf mat at home.” And it is precisely at that moment that a small pitch appears on the stage: Klammer takes a couple of shots. He misses the first hole, the public roars, he concentrates, demands a second shot: hole. Even in golf, the Kaiser never falls.