The men's
alpine skiing
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for ...
downhill
Downhill may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock
* ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse
* ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...
was the third of six events of the
alpine skiing programme at the
1952 Winter Olympics
The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 6. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 6. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Oslo 1952, was a winter multi-sport event held from 14 to 25 February 195 ...
. It was held at
Norefjell
Norefjell is a mountain range in the Scandes Mountains system in Norway. It stretches between the valleys of Eggedal (west) and Hallingdal (east). It covers parts of the municipalities Flå, Sigdal, and Krødsherad, all in the county Busker ...
ski area on Saturday, 16 February, and started at 1
p.m. It followed the
women's giant slalom on Thursday and
men's giant slalom on Friday.
It was the second Olympic downhill race, which was first run as a separate event in
1948
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
.
Defending world champion Zeno Colò
Zeno Colò (30 June 1920 – 12 May 1993) was a champion alpine ski racer from Italy. Born in Cutigliano, Tuscany, he was among the top ski racers of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Career
At the World Championships in 1950 in Aspen, he won go ...
of Italy won the gold, the only Olympic medal of his career; he was fourth in the other two events. More than a second behind was silver medalist
Othmar Schneider
Othmar Schneider (27 August 1928 – 25 December 2012) was an Austrian Alpine skier and Olympic champion.
Schneider was born in Lech am Arlberg. At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital ...
, and
Christian Pravda
Christian Pravda (8 March 1927 – 11 November 1994) was an Austrian alpine ski racer.
He was born in Kufstein, Austria.
At age 20, he participated in the 1948 Winter Olympics in the slalom, but was disqualified.
At the 1952 Winter O ...
took the bronze.
The race's starting
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
was above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
; the course length was , with a vertical drop of . Colò's winning time of 150.8 seconds yielded an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of .
Eighty-one alpine skiers from 27 nations competed.
Results
''Saturday, 16 February 1952''
The race was started at 13:00
local time
Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...
, (
UTC +1).
References
External links
Official Olympic Report*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpine skiing at the 1952 Winter Olympics - Men's downhill
1952
Men's alpine skiing at the 1952 Winter Olympics