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Franz Klammer is one of THE legends of ski racing. Every September along with the Austrian Tourist Board and other supporting partners, Franz hosts his Wooden Spoon Golf Competition. The event is now in its 13^th year. After the golf, Franz took time to talk with Racer Ready and appeared wearing a Kilt and proclaiming that the kilt was developed in history by the Carinthians! Franz talks about the new HEAD racers and mistakes made by the Austrian Team.

Racer Ready:There are some big names that have joined the HEAD World Cup team this year.

Franz Klammer: Some very big names. I think we have the potential to have the World Cup winner on our team but also for individual World Cup title winners like the Slalom World Cup winner, Ligety for instance, and he is kind of getting more into the All Round. With Bode and Svindal we have the biggest skiers of the time. Werner Heel is a very good technician, a very nice guy and a very humble guy, really down to earth and a really good downhiller so I think he fits really well into the HEAD team.

Do you feel that HEAD can become the number one ski brand in the World Cup this year?

I think it will still be a big battle. Atomic have a lot of very good talent, very good skiers and they are still the biggest ski company out there I would say. We really have some good guys on the team to challenge Atomic.

There is a long of talk on the subject of the Super Combined, the set up is not quite right. There is also discussion on the team races for the Nations Cup. What are your thoughts on this?

I do not see the Super Combined. I would rather see the original combined with three events, Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom, within the racing and not creating an artificial event; nobody really likes it, not even the racers, nobody actually likes it. Only FIS likes it! I do not see it. Maybe down the road we will say it is a good event but at the moment I do not see the real purpose of the Super Combined. Having a normal combined in Wengen is much better than a Super Combined.

Do you think that putting a skier cross instead of the Super Combined would be a better idea?

Skier Cross is an event itself: It is fantastic, it is great but it should stay itself. I do not think that it should be a part of the Alpine World Cup.

Where should it be positioned?

I have not thought about this. I do not think that you should mix things up to right now. When I think quickly right now, I think you should stick to the traditional slalom, the traditional Giant Slalom and the traditional Downhill. Skier Cross was THE event of the Olympics and it is fantastic to see the skier cross: At the moment the athletes are not the best people out there: retired alpine racers who never made the world cup, I am sorry to say this but this is what I think that the best people will eventually compete in skier cross. Then it will be one big event on its own.

Would you liked to have done skier cross?

I think I would have liked to do it but now I would rather ski with my friends and not having body contact!

A few years ago you lead a group of American tourists down the top of the Hahnenkamm. You could see ‘the look’ in your eyes as you approached the Mausefalle….

It is still there, I am still there, I am still skiing it.

Do you often relive skiing the course?

No, only when I am there. It is great to be there, memories are coming back, moments coming back, what has happened there.

Do you think that the courses are too easy now?

I would say yes! With this man made snow it takes the last strength out of you: it’s bumpy and the rolls, the ripples, the natural terrain but it is still a good downhill, a good competition. You still have to get out of the Steilhang so it is still the biggest test in skiing. The Zielsprung was adjusted this year but it was stupid to put it there in the first place. It was a brutal section before as there was a road just in the compression and you could not see this and you were sitting down. Now the compression does not exist anymore. There is no challenge going down the Schuss. Now they made an artificial jump. Why make an artificial jump going that far? Young racers are not aware of the danger going at that speed because they have never faced this danger. Now they think that it is easy. Both falls in the last few years were not because of the jump but their own fault: Albrecht and the American McCartney, it was their own fault.

In your day, what did you do to get forward if you felt you were too far back?

I can show you a series of pictures from the traverse to the last jump; my skis were going up in the air, they were above 90 degrees and I was fighting. I was thinking oh s**t. I do not want to land like this, I was fighting like crazy. I landed on my feet and came fifth on this run because I was not really paying attention to this jump! Now they take this jump their way and put a new jump down there. An experienced downhiller would do it a different way because they always go forwards but inexperienced like Albrecht and McCartney, they just sit there and wait, they are not aware of the danger.

You won eight out of nine races in one season, why can no one match this these days?

As a good racer you do not have this advantage. There always used to be parts in the downhill like the compression in Val d’Isere (on the old La Daille OK course) and the mid station and these have totally gone. Where can racers make up their time these days? It is grinding, grinding, grinding and if your skis are not running, where can you make up time? There used to be three, four, five parts in a downhill where you could make up time: if you risked, you were rewarded. Nowadays you seldom have this risk and reward situation.

Did you used to study the other racers in your day?

No. Why should I? I was taking part.

Who was your role model when you started out?

When I first started racing it was Toni Sailor. He inspired me to just become a ski racer. Then it was Stefan Sodat, he won Wengen once in the early 60’s. He was from Carinthia and belonged to the same ski club that I do; he took me under his wings and taught me everything. He told me how to survive the Austrian Ski Federation, this was very important for a Corinthian. He was the only Corinthian who had made the Austrian Team and was number one in the FIS list in Downhill at one stage. As a Corinthian you can be kicked out of the team and you never have a chance to come back.

Who do you feel is the one racer from within the HEAD racers who will bring the excitement back to the brand?

I think Bode is dedicated to the sport. If he is working out, if he had been in good shape last year he would have won two Gold medals at the Olympics, Downhill and Super G. If he is back in his racing mode, I think Bode is the one to beat. Now it helps him because in the beginning he was not happy with the slalom skis and the Giant Slalom, downhill and Super G skis were equally as good as the Atomic. Now with all the other guys testing and even though Bode is skiing slightly different, nobody can ski the same way as Bode. Bode is still the man to watch.

Svindal brings some good spirit into the HEAD team. The biggest advantage about HEAD over the Atomic’s is this: Atomic makes a fantastic ski and racers are made to feel that they should be happy to have the ski. For the racers with HEAD the skis are really custom made to the person, the skis are really tailored to the person. This is the biggest advantage and I think this is why the high profile skiers are switching to HEAD. The racers have the opportunity to have the ski they really want to have.

Do you think that having the likes of Ted Ligety on HEAD takes the pressure off the other technical skiers? And this will also help Bode with his slalom?

Absolutely. I just hear from Ligety, Svindal and all the guys exchanging their thoughts about the skis and going into the whole set up. It is very fruitful.

Do you think that the unfortunate injury to Didier Defago will open up the Downhill this season or do you think that it is still between Cuche, Miller and Svindal?

I do not think that Defago was not really a threat in the Downhill. He took the chances at the Olympics and he was the best on the day of the Olympics but he was not a threat all season. I think that an Austrian will come back again, maybe Scheiber; Walchhofer on his good days, he is always there and also Grugger. Grugger is in very good shape, hopefully he does not get injured – he has had a lot of injuries lately. If they are not injured they will be there, it will be a very close competition among about six, seven, eight racers.

Do you think this is another reason why nobody has been able to match your record of wins in a season?

There was always strength but then one was always better than the rest (he laughs!)

Is it better from your point of view that one Austrian wins the race and the rest are nowhere or there are three in the top five?

We made a big mistake. The biggest mistake that the Austrian Ski Federation made was to train to make everybody a World Cup winner. You cannot create the Overall World Cup winner. They just emerge, they come out. I would rather see a specialist like Herbst (in Slalom). We gave up Downhill completely as no one was training downhill; Fritz Strobl was the last downhiller. Maybe Klaus Kroell fits a little bit into this but I think this was the biggest mistake of the Austrian Ski Team trainers.

I would rather win ten races rather than the Overall World Cup. If it happens this is fine.

We need to win and if we are not winning the Downhill then it is a disaster. If you give up the downhill, like the Austrian Coaches did, I am very glad that they have made the change back. I think that Mathias Berthold is doing a good job. Austria was also lacking a team spirit. The team had fallen apart. One is doing this, another is doing that, the Austrian Team had a lot of money and they could afford all the extra projects. I think now working together as a team.

The Austrian Team were going the wring way. It started the year before Are (2007) and they were pursuing the wrong thing for so long. Now they have a new spirit. Hirscher is a great talent but don’t waste his talent on the downhill. He should win in the Slalom and Giant Slalom, don’t put him in the Combined, who cares about the Combined? You have to have a programme; that is my opinion.

The Austrian Team have a very strong young team; the Junior Team is very strong. From the junior to the World Cup, they are in between, there is something missing so that is what they couldn’t do: they could not bring the European Cup, where we won everything in the European Cup but they did not achieve in the World Cup. I think this was the trainers fault. They could not inspire the racers and this is still the biggest problem to get the young talents to the World Cup. Other nations have very few people and we have so many and we are not able to get two or three there. But I think this was mismanagement: Making people do the Combined or two or three events was the biggest mistake in making an all rounder.

First of all you have to start to win races, to play your strongest card, whether it is slalom, downhill or whatever it is, win there; then you can start to fiddle around. The best example of this is Schoenfelder: he won the Slalom World Cup then he thinks he has the potential to be the Overall World Cup winner. What happens? He injures everything and does not have the capacity. If he had stuck with the slalom he would still be a world class slalom skier. This was a miscalculation of his coaches and trainers and himself.

Coaches are very important for the spirit in the team. It is very important that the coaches set up good training situations, good training possibilities. The rest the athlete has to do. If you ask too much they do not have the answer!