The Men's downhill competition of the 1964 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held at Patscherkofel on Thursday, 30 January.[1] The defending world champion was Karl Schranz of Austria,[2] and defending Olympic champion Jean Vuarnet of France had retired from competition.[3]
| Men's downhill at the IX Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Patscherkofel Tyrol, Austria | ||||||||||||
| Date | 30 January 1964 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 84 from 27 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 2:18.16 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Men's Downhill | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Patscherkofel |
| Vertical | 867 m (2,844 ft) |
| Top elevation | 1,952 m (6,404 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,085 m (3,560 ft) |
The race course had a number of casualties during training runs, including the death of Ross Milne of Australia,[4][5] which led to a label of "Course of Fear."[6] Zimmermann was favored by many to win the downhill and to the delight of the Austrian fans he won by 0.74 seconds.[6][7]
The starting gate was at an elevation of 1,952 m (6,404 ft), and the vertical drop was 867 m (2,844 ft).[1] The course length was 3.120 km (1.94 mi) and Zimmerman's winning run resulted in an average speed of 81.297 km/h (50.5 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 6.275 m/s (20.6 ft/s). Following the victory, Zimmerman was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the United States.[7]
A dozen years later in 1976, Franz Klammer raced on a slightly shorter course (by 100 meters (110 yards)) and shaved more than 32 seconds off of Zimmerman's time to famously win the Olympic downhill.[8]
Results
edit
- Source:[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Offizieller Bericht der IX. Olympischen Winterspiele Innsbruck 1964" (PDF). Austrian Federal Publishing House for Instruction, Science and Art, Vienna and Munich. LA84 Foundation. 1964. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "1962 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Alpine Skiing at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
- ^ "Australian skier killed in Olympic drill". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. (Florida). Associated Press. January 26, 1964. p. 41.
- ^ "Aussie's Milne dies of injuries". Bend Bulletin. (Oregon). UPI. January 25, 1964. p. 5.
- ^ a b Ress, Paul (January 27, 1964). "A fight for life by the home team". Sports Illustrated. p. 32. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013.
- ^ a b Jenkins, Dan (February 10, 1964). "Russian blades and fast French skis". Sports Illustrated. p. 14. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012.
- ^ Johnson, William Oscar (16 February 1976). "On came the heroes". Sports Illustrated. p. 10. Archived from the original on August 26, 2009.