One of my all time favourite sporting memories was when Franz Klammer won the Mens Downhill Ski Gold Medal at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck 1976.
This was probably one of the first occasions that I'd ever watched the Winter Olympics or infact any of the winter based sports and this memory got me well and truly hooked.
In 1975 Klammer had already won the first of his five World Titles and was the odds on favourite to win Olympic Gold.
Skiing in his home country, cheered on by 60,000-plus screaming fans he was the last of the 15 competitors to ski. The course by now had become treacherously icy and had already seen Switzerland's Bernhard Russi, the defending Olympic downhill champion grab the lead with a time of 1:46.06.
Klammer took off from the starting gate like a man possessed, throwing himself into turns, his ski's juddering violently beneath him, but at the 1000 metre mark he was still behind Russi's split time.
Taking more and more risks, flying high and out of
shape over jumps he could be seen (even by my untrained eye) to be
pushing his ability to the limit.
As he took off from the final jump
he launched himself towards the finish line, beating Russi by 0.33
seconds, the crowd went wild and I was sat staring at the TV in
amazement.
What a memory and one that still ranks as probably my favourite, which is saying a great deal as I follow so many sports on a much more regular basis.
Amazing
Mark Williams
Memory added on July 7, 2015
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