The Men's downhill competition of the Calgary 1988 Olympics was held at the newly-developed Nakiska on Mount Allan on Monday, February 15.[1][2]
| Men's Downhill at the XV Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Nakiska, Kananaskis Village, Alberta, Canada | ||||||||||||
| Date | February 15, 1988 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 51 from 18 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:59.63 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Men's Downhill | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Nakiska |
| Vertical | 874 m (2,867 ft) |
| Top elevation | 2,412 m (7,913 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,538 m (5,046 ft) |
The reigning world champion was Peter Müller, while all-around Pirmin Zurbriggen was the defending World Cup downhill champion, led the current season, and was a medal threat in all five alpine events.[3][4][5] Defending Olympic champion Bill Johnson did not make the U.S. Olympic team; this was the third of four consecutive Olympics without the defending champion in the field.
The race was postponed a day due to winds that gusted to 98 mph (158 km/h) at the exposed summit;[6] Zurbriggen took the gold and Müller the silver, a half-second behind.[7] More than a second behind the runner-up was bronze medalist Franck Piccard.[8] Leonhard Stock, the 1980 champion, was fourth, but nearly two seconds behind Zurbriggen.
The course started at an elevation of 2,412 m (7,913 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 874 m (2,867 ft) and a course length of 3.147 km (1.96 mi). Zurbriggen's winning time of 119.63 seconds yielded an average speed of 94.702 km/h (58.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.306 m/s (24.0 ft/s).
Results edit
The race was started at 11:30 local time, (UTC −7). At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was −7 °C (19 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was 0 °C (32 °F).
- Source:[1]
References edit
- ^ a b "Calgary 1988 Official Report" (PDF). XV Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. 1988. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Alpine Skiing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^ Johnson, William Oscar (January 27, 1988). "The Swiss golden boy". Sports Illustrated. p. 46.
- ^ "1987 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "1987 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Downhill blown out". Nashua Telegraph. (New Hampshire). Associated Press. February 15, 1988. p. 15.
- ^ Lochner, Bob (February 16, 1988). "Zurbriggen snatches downhill gold". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). (Los Angeles Times). p. 3D.
- ^ "Zurbriggen not worrying about gold". Toledo Blade. (Ohio). Associated Press. February 16, 1988. p. 18.