The Men's

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 ...

competition of the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

was held at

Bjelašnica Bjelašnica ( sr-cyrl, Бјелашница, ) is a mountain in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is to the southwest of Sarajevo, bordering Mount Igman. Bjelašnica's tallest peak, by which the mountain group got its name, rises to an elevatio ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. Due to weather delays, it was run on Thursday, February 16, a full week after originally scheduled. The reigning

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

was

Harti Weirather Hartmann "Harti" Weirather (born January 25, 1958) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Born in Reutte, Tyrol, he specialized in the downhill event. Racing career During the early 1980s, Weirather won six World Cup downhill ra ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, while teammate

Franz Klammer Franz Klammer (born 3 December 1953) is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria. Klammer dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons (1975– 78). He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsb ...

was the reigning

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

downhill champion and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

's Urs Räber led the current season. Similar to 1980, the defending Olympic downhill champion was from

and did not compete; Leonhard Stock was injured a month earlier in early January. In order to meet the minimum vertical drop requirement of , the starting gate was in a newly-constructed summit lodge and restaurant, with a connecting ramp to the mountain proper. Bill Johnson of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

became the first from outside the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

to win an Olympic downhill. In his first full World Cup season, he was a top "glider" and made up time on the flatter lower third of the course. The previous best finishes for an American man in an Olympic downhill was fifth ( 1952, 1980), and sixth (

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

); American women had won three medals ( 1960,

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

), but never a gold. The course started at an

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 ...

of 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 ...

with a vertical drop of and a length of . Johnson's winning time was 105.59 seconds, yielding an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of .

Results

The race was started at 12:00

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). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was , and the snow condition was "good." :

References

External links

*
FIS results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpine skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics - Men's downhill Men's downhill