The Women's downhill competition of the Albertville 1992 Olympics was held at Meribel on Saturday, 15 February.[1][2]
| Women's Downhill at the XVI Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Meribel | ||||||||||||
| Date | February 15 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 30 from 12 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:52.55 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Women's downhill | |
|---|---|
| Location | Meribel – Roc de Fer |
| Vertical | 828 m (2,717 ft) |
| Top elevation | 2,260 m (7,415 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,432 m (4,698 ft) |
The defending world champion was Petra Kronberger of Austria, while Switzerland's Chantal Bournissen was the defending World Cup downhill champion and Germany's Katja Seizinger led the current season.[3][4]
Kerrin Lee-Gartner of Canada won the gold medal, Hilary Lindh of the United States took the silver, and Veronika Wallinger of Austria was the bronze medalist. Seizinger and Kronberger were close behind and just off the podium, while Bournissen failed to finish.[5][6][7] (Seizinger won the next two editions in 1994 and 1998.)
The Roc de Fer (iron rock) course started at an elevation of 2,260 m (7,415 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 828 m (2,717 ft) and a course length of 2.770 km (1.72 mi). Lee-Gartner's winning time was 112.55 seconds, yielding an average course speed of 88.601 km/h (55.1 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.357 m/s (24.1 ft/s).
Lee-Gartner was the first from outside the Alps to win a women's speed event (downhill, super-G) at the Olympics; through 2018, she remains the only Canadian to win an Olympic speed event.
Results
editThe race was started at 11:15 local time, (UTC +1). At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was −2.0 °C (28.4 °F), and the snow condition was fresh; the temperature at the finish was lower, at −3.0 °C (26.6 °F).
- Source:[1]
References
edit- ^ a b "Albertville 1992 Official Report" (PDF). Le Comite d'Organisation des Jeux Olympiques Albertville. LA84 Foundation. 1992. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Alpine Skiing at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games: Women's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- ^ "1991 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "1991 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Lochner, Bob (February 16, 1992). "Lindh lends a hand to stun Europeans". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). (Los Angeles Times). p. 1G.
- ^ "For U.S., a silver lining". Nashua Telegraph. (New Hampshire). Associated Press. February 16, 1992. p. C1.
- ^ Johnson, William Oscar (February 24, 1992). "On slippery slopes". Sports Illustrated. p. 20.