The Men's Downhill competition of the Albertville 1992 Olympics was held at Val d'Isère on Sunday, 9 February.[1][2]
| Men's downhill at the XVI Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | La face de Bellevarde Val-d'Isère, France | ||||||||||||
| Date | 9 February 1992 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 55 from 24 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:50.37 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Men's Downhill | |
|---|---|
| Location | La face de Bellevarde Val d'Isère, France |
| Vertical | 973 m (3,192 ft) |
| Top elevation | 2,809 m (9,216 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,836 m (6,024 ft) |
| Longest run | 3.048 km (1.894 mi) |
The defending world champion was Franz Heinzer of Switzerland, who was also the defending World Cup downhill champion and led the current season.[3][4] Defending Olympic champion Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland had retired from competition two years earlier; this was the fourth consecutive Olympics without the defending champion in the field.
The race was run on a new course on La face de Bellevarde, designed by 1972 champion Bernhard Russi. Austria's Patrick Ortlieb, who had yet to win a World Cup event, won the gold medal; Franck Piccard of France was only 0.05 seconds back to take the silver, and the bronze medalist was Günther Mader of Austria.[5][6] Ortlieb was first racer on the course, and he became the fifth Austrian to win the event, in its twelfth edition. Heinzer was sixth, more than a second back.
The course started at an elevation of 2,809 m (9,216 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 973 m (3,192 ft) and a course length of 3.048 km (1.89 mi). Ortlieb's winning time of 110.37 seconds yielded an average course speed of 99.418 km/h (61.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 8.816 m/s (28.9 ft/s).
Results
editThe race was started at 12:15 local time, (UTC +1). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was 5.0 °C (41 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was lower, at 3.0 °C (37 °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: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
- ^ "1991 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "1991 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "It's all downhill for Austria's alpine gold medalist". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. 10 February 1992. p. 1D.
- ^ Johnson, William Oscar (February 17, 1992). "La Face job". Sports Illustrated. p. 36.