The filmmakers also were present in Grenoble for the Winter Olympics, providing a fictional inside look at the Games far different from that of, for example, 'Chariots of Fire'. (A Swiss medico wears an armband identifying him as 'Arzt', or doctor, at a supposed French venue). Wengen, Switzerland passes for several World Cup race sites. This comes across powerfully in several hilarious interview scenes, with American and European journalists trying in vain to get the young man to say something worth writing down. David Chappellet (a young Robert Redford), more typically, reminds one of the astronauts in '2001', with their limited range of expressions and nothing particularly interesting to say.

Killy was stories about him, some even true, are legion.

Athletes are not necessarily interesting people.

Almost everything about this production was improvised. The late Mike Ritchie, who'd essayed nothing more ambitious than commercials, traveled the World Cup circuit in the 1967-68 winter, accompanied by Aspen novelist Jim Salter, whose screenplay (from Oakley Hall's very different novel) effectively was written in segments the night before each shoot.

Can it hold the attention of the rest of us? Roone Arledge and his 'Wide World of Sports' provided one answer, as Jean Claude Killy and his successors skied into American living rooms on many winter Saturdays. The appeal of a ski film to those who ski is obvious.

Download downhill ski racer