Roger Federer's 15th 'Grand Slam' win at Wimbledon on Sunday created huge interest in the world of sport because of it's 'historical' dimension. After becoming one of the few athletes able to win each of the four major tennis tournament in Paris this June, the Swiss champion is now leading the official standings of major or 'Grand Slam' wins - only six years after his first triumph at Wimbledon in July 2003!
Even though it's difficult to compare the two sports, it's interesting trying to set a parallel with alpine ski racing. Among the numerous World Cup events held in the Alps and around the globe each season since January 1967, a small group of them are also called the 'Classics'. The most prestigious and traditional races are now the 'Lauberhorn' at Wengen, launched in 1930, and the 'Hahnenkamm' at Kitzbühel which started in 1931.
To those 'monuments' it's possible to add a series of so-called 'World Cup Classics' which belong since the late 1960s to the international ski tour created at Portillo on August 11th -1966.
The ski racing historians include in this list places like Val d'Isère (1968), Val Gardena (1969) Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1970) as well as Adelboden (1967) Sestriere-Kandahar (1967-1971), Megève (until 1975) Chamonix-Kandahar (1968), Madonna di Campiglio (until 2006), St Anton-Kandahar (until 2004) and the slalom at Muerren won by Frenchman Jean-Noel Augert in 1971.
Among the downhillers, the great 'Kaiser' Franz Klammer has been the most brilliant collector of major wins between 1973 and 1985 with his 16 wins out of an overall total of 25 World Cup victories. His compatriot Stephan Eberharter follows him with 10 successes at big events. Italy's Kristian Ghedina is behinh Stephan with 8 wins in those races along with Karl Schranz and Swiss Franz Heinzer. Hermann Maier, Luc Alphand, Helmuth Hoeflehner, Roland Collombin or Pirmin Zurbriggen are just behind them with 7 wins.
Only a few of them were able to triumph on all the top-courses of Val d'Isère, Val Gardena, Kitzbühel, Wengen and Garmisch-Partenkirchen , the five founding members of the former ‘Big-Five' association renamed ‘Club-5' after a short time in 1986. Among them, Klammer, Eberharter, Walchhofer, Heinzer and Peter Wirnsbergerg, the 1980 silver medallist at Lake Placid.
By the way Klammer even managed to achieve that feat within a few months during his fantastic 1975 season on his way to capture 8 downhill races out of 9.
Many of their colleagues were more efficient in the technical specialties, as Sweden's ski legend Ingemar Stenmark, who won 27 Worl Cup classics between 1974 and 1989! This mark puts him far ahead of his other rivals like Gustavo Thoeni, Piero Gros, Phil Mahre or Alberto Tomba. Interestingly enough, two-time Overall World Cup champion Karl Schranz also excelled in the technical events during his 16 year-long career. He did win the giant slalom races at Val d'Isère and Adelboden in 1969 as well as in Val Gardena in 1970 during the FIS World Championships which also counted for the World Cup standings!
In fact, the skier from St Anton am Arlberg accumulated many big wins in all 'classical' specialties his pre-World Cup seasons, including at Kitzbühel, Wengen and at the Arlberg-Kandahar.
If one also includes these major wins - the first being the Kandahar at Chamonix in 1957 - Schranz would also pass the limit of 20 major - or ‘Grand Slam'victories in his career. He was one of the few athletes along Toni Sailer, Jean-Claude Killy, Guy Perillat, Henri Duvillard, Kjetil Aamodt, Marc Girardelli or Pirmin Zurbriggen to shine in downhill, slalom and giant slalom races.
PkL
