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Jean-Claude Killy (born August 30, 1943) is a French alpine skier and a triple Olympic champion.
Killy was born in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine but brought up in Val d'Isère. Following his international success, he moved to Geneva, Switzerland in 1969.
Killy was a World Cup champion in 1967 and would repeat in 1968. Killy won the Triple Crown of Alpine Skiing with a sweep of all three gold medals at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, in the slalom, giant slalom and downhill events.
In 1969, Killy signed a deal with Head Ski to endorse a metal and fiberglass ski named for him, the Killy 800. Head manufactured a line of Killy skis for at least two years.
Killy starred as a ski instructor in the 1972 crime movie Snow Job, released in the UK as The Ski Raiders, and U.S. TV as The Great Ski Caper. American children in the early 1970s knew Killy from a TV commercial where he introduces himself, his thick accent making his name into "Chocolate Kitty." Killy played himself in the 1983 movie Copper Mountain: A Club Med Experience, starring Jim Carrey and Alan Thicke, set at the now closed Club Med village in the U.S. ski resort at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
The ski area of Val d'Isère and Tignes was given the name l'Espace Killy in his honor.
Jean-Claude Killy also had a short career as a racing driver between 1967 and 1970, participating in the Paris Dakar Rally.
Jean-Claude Killy became Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur in 2000.
From 1977 to 1994, he was a member of the Executive board of the Alpine skiing Committee of the Federation Internationale de Ski.
Killy served as the President of the Société du Tour de France between 1992 and 2001, and also as co-president of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Since 1995 Killy has been a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Intrawest credits Jean-Claude with the design of a ski trail, "Cupp Run," at their Snowshoe resort in West Virginia.
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