Franz Klammer (born 1953) is a former alpine skier from Austria. He won a gold medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck for the downhill event and won 25 World Cup downhills.

Klammer was born into an alpine farming family and had to ski to school each winter because his home village did not have any ski lifts at the time. He started racing at the age of 14 after dropping out of school. After a tough struggle to make the Austrian ski team, Klammer made his World Cup debut at age 19 at the Val Gardena downhill. Whilst he finished ninth during the training run, he only manage 32nd place on the race day. Nonetheless, he spent 13 seasons on the World Cup circuit between 1972 and 1985.

In 1976, 22-year-old Klammer won gold at the Olympics. He narrowly beat Bernhard Russi (born 1948) from Switzerland by 0.33 seconds. Whilst winning 25 World Cup downhill races, Klammer only won the overall World Cup downhill title five times (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1983). To win the World Cup, competitors had to win both the slalom and the giant slalom.

Klammer participated in his final World Cup race in March 1985 at Aspen, Colorado. He retired from international competitions at age 31. Following this, Klammer briefly took up touring car racing. In 1990, he won a round of the European Touring Car Championship but did not achieve as much success as he had done as a skiier.

In Austria, Klammer is known as "The Kaiser" and the "Klammer Express."

More Info: en.wikipedia.org