France’s Jean Claude Killy won three gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. His first win, in the downhill, came on February 9, 1968. Killy followed up his Downhill win, taking the gold medal in the Giant Slalom on February 12. He put a final exclamation point on his spectacular Olympic showing when he won the Slalom on February 17. Killy was the second Olympic skier to win the “Alpine Grand Slam.”
Austrian Toni Sailer was the first skier to win the three events. He won his gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy in 1956.
In the days leading up to Killy’s third win, the Frenchman and Sailer became engaged in an Alpine trash talking event of Olympic proportions. Sailer predicted that Killy would fail in his attempt to win the third leg of the slam. Killy responded by saying that even having only won two gold medals so far, that he had already surpassed Sailer’s 1956 performance. The AP reported that Killy said, “In the slalom Sailer only had to make one descent. I must make two. To win the special slalom I must race four times – – two qualification runs in addition to the two official runs. It is much more difficult.”
In addition winning his three gold medals, Jean Claude Killy clearly won the pissing contest with Sailer as well.