Editing Jean-Claude Killy (section)

==Early career==
Killy turned his attention to skiing rather than school. His father allowed him to drop out at age 15, and he made the French national junior team a year later. As a young racer, Killy was fast, but did not usually complete his races, and the early 1960s were not entirely successful for him.<ref name=si1990 />

In December 1961, at age 18, Killy won his first international race, a giant slalom. The event took place in his home village of Val-d'Isère. Killy had started 39th, a position that should have been a severe disadvantage.<ref name=si1990 />

The French coach picked Killy for the [[giant slalom]] in the [[FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1962|1962 World Championships]] in [[Chamonix]], France, {{convert|50|mi|km}} away in the shadow of [[Mont Blanc]]. But Killy, unaware of his selection, was still attempting to qualify for the [[Downhill (ski competition)|downhill]] event in northeastern Italy at [[Cortina d'Ampezzo]]. Only three weeks before the world championships, he skied in his typical reckless style. About {{convert|200|yd|m|spell=in}} from the finish, Killy hit a stretch of ice in a compression and went down, rose immediately, then crossed the finish on just one ski—and the fastest time. Unfortunately, his other leg was broken, and he watched the [[FIS Alpine World Ski Championships|1962 World Championships]] on crutches.<ref name=si1990 />

Two years later, at age 20, Killy was entered in all three of the men's events at the [[Alpine skiing at the 1964 Winter Olympics|1964 Olympics]], because his coach wanted to prepare him for [[Alpine skiing at the 1968 Winter Olympics|1968]]. Unfortunately, Killy was plagued by recurrences of amoebic [[dysentery]] and [[hepatitis]], ailments that he had contracted in 1962 during a summer of compulsory service with the [[French Army]] in Algeria. His form was definitely off, and he fell a few yards after the start of the downhill, lost a binding in the slalom, and finished fifth in the giant slalom, in which he had been the heavy favorite.<ref name=si1990 /> Yet a few weeks later, he dominated a giant slalom race at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, counting for the prestigious Arlberg-Kandahar events, the oldest 'classic' in the sport. A year later, he also triumphed at another major competition, the slalom of the Hahnenkamm races at Kitzbühel that he clinched three times in a row until 1967.

Although the first half of the decade was a relative disappointment, Killy began to strongly improve his results afterwards to become one of the best technical ski racers. In August 1966, the Frenchman, nicknamed 'Toutoune' by some of his colleagues and friends, scored his first win in a [[Downhill skiing|downhill]] race against an international field at the [[FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966|1966 World Championships]] in [[Portillo, Chile|Portillo]], Chile, and also took gold in the [[Alpine skiing combined|combined]]. Killy was peaking as the first [[FIS Alpine Ski World Cup|World Cup]] season was launched in January [[1967 Alpine Skiing World Cup|1967]], with the [[Alpine skiing at the 1968 Winter Olympics|1968 Winter Olympics]] in France only a year away.