Killy, Jean-Claude (zhäN-klōd kēlē`), 1943–, French skier. He grew up at his father's ski resort and began skiing at the age of 3. At 18 he was a senior member of the French national team. A daring athlete with superb reflexes, Killy reached speeds of more than 80 mi (129 km) per hr. The dominant male in the sport from 1966 to 1968, Killy won the triple Olympic crown (downhill, slalom, and giant slalom) in the 1968 Winter Olympics, the second person ever to do so. A World Cup winner in 1966–67 and 1967–68, he also led the French team to world championships in those years. In 1968, Killy retired to race automobiles and pursue commercial ventures, but he returned in 1972, becoming a professional skier and world champion. He was an organizer of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

Killy, Jean-Claude

(born Aug. 30, 1943, Saint-Cloud, near Paris, France) French skier. Killy was reared in an Alpine ski resort. He became the European champion in 1965, and in 1966 he won the world combined championship (downhill, slalom, and giant slalom). In 1967 he won the first World Cup for men, repeating this triumph in 1968. In the 1968 Winter Olympics he became the second skier in history to sweep the Alpine events (after Austria's Toni Sailer in 1956). He retired in 1968 but returned as a professional in 1972.