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Celebrities in Switzerland: Jean-Claude Killy
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Killy, Jean-Claude (1943 - ) France / Sport star / GE
Killy

The French ski champion and member of the International Olympics Committee has lived in Geneva since 1969. Jean-Claude Killy was born in Saint-Cloud in 1943. Very early on, his family moved to Val d'Isère, where his father ran a sports store.

Jean-Claude began to learn how to ski and joined the French national team. His first big success came in 1966, in Portillo, Chile, where he won the world combined championship in the combination event. In 1968, during the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, he won three gold medals: slalom, giant slalom and downhill, and was dubbed the French athlete of the century.

In 1969, Jean-Claude Killy settled in Geneva, Switzerland, where he began to move over into the sports clothing business with the company Veleda-Killy. His work earned him the 1982 Export Oscar.

Jean-Claude Killy co-chaired the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics and chairs the Amaury Sport Organization, an umbrella for various sports events such as the Tour de France and the Paris-Dakar. In 1994, he was named president of the Société du Tour de France.

Now a widower with three children, this businessman is a distinguished member of the International Olympic Committee. He appreciates the anonymity that his Geneva home provides: That's why I love Switzerland. It's an extraordinarily welcoming country. I love the people's sense of character and discretion.

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