Peter Fill: With wrong material to the finish

“Due to adverse weather conditions, the downhill start at the 2005 World Cup race in Val Gardena/Gröden had to be lowered to the super-G start. The situation was chaotic and the race was finally started after a long back and forth. Shortly before I went to line up at the start house, my ski-man handed over my skis. He cleaned my ski boots which I tried to strap on my skis - they did not work. The right skis were still on the test driver's shoes and not mine. But there was no time to change so I strapped on my training skis and went to the start - what else could I do? However, this decision turned out to be the wrong one. First, the skis were damaged and not adjusted to a downhill but to a super-G race. And they weren’t even allowed for a downhill race so I was disqualified at the finish. This race was a disaster! To cap it all, I was four seconds behind the then leader, Michael Walchhofer who in the end was defeated by Marco Büchel by 2/100 of a second.”

Franz Klammer: Too nervous to win

"When I think back to Val Gardena/Gröden, I remember not only the moments of success and my four wins, but above all the fact that in 1972 I raced my absolutely first World Cup race here - with skis made of metal. To be at the same start with big names like Bernhard Russi, Roland Collombin and the other great skiers was a unique experience for me. And although I had achieved very good results in the European Cup up to that point, this is where I made my World Cup debut just barely placing in the top 30. The nervousness had completely overpowered me thinking that I was starting at 19 years of age next to all these absolute ski legends."