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Sports Then and Now



Jean Claude Killy and His 1968 Winter Olympics Gold Rush 5

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Rojo Grande
Jean Claude Killy was one of the brightest stars of the 1968 Winter Olympics.

Jean Claude Killy was one of the brightest stars of the 1968 Winter Olympics.

It was the 1968 Winter Games—Grenoble, France.

The distinctive and enduring Olympic theme Bugler’s Dream , was introduced that year.

Drug and gender testing made it’s first intrusion into The Games.

A worldwide television audience viewed the spectacle for the first time in living color.

Two names, above all others, emerged from those Olympics to be indelibly etched in our hearts and minds:

Ageless US figure skater Peggy Fleming emphatically and beautifully declared to the world that American figure skating was back – after the entire US team was wiped out in a tragic 1961 air crash.

Dashing French alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy stole hearts—and at least one of his three gold medals—before a frenzied home crowd on the slopes of Chamrousse.

While Fleming’s story fairly drips with drama and significance, the telling of that tale on these pages will have to wait for another time. Read the rest of this entry →

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