Jean-Claude KILLY

Lead contender

After he won 12 of 16 World Cup races during the 1966-1967 season, French sports fans hoped that Jean-Claude Killy would sweep all three Alpine skiing events when the Olympic Winter Games were staged in Grenoble, France, in 1968.

Killy began by winning gold in the downhill, slashing across the finish line a mere eight hundredths of a second ahead of French teammate Guy Périllat. Then when, for the first time, the giant slalom contest was decided by a combination of two runs rather than a single run, Killy again won gold – by more than two seconds.

Killy needed the slalom to complete the Alpine sweep. His second run kept him in the lead until the turn of his closest rival, Karl Schranz. But as Schranz sped through the fog, he skidded to a halt, claiming that someone crossed his path. Granted a rerun, Schranz beat Killy's time and was declared the winner. But a Jury of Appeal disqualified him and awarded gold to Killy.

Killy later served as co-president of the Organising Committee of the 1992 Albertville Olympic Winter Games and became an IOC member in 1995.