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 Calgary 1988 Olympics was held at the newly-developed

Nakiska Nakiska is a ski resort in western Canada, in the Kananaskis Country region of the province of Alberta. It is located from Calgary, west on Highway 1 (Trans-Canada Highway) and south on Highway 40 (Kananaskis Trail). "Nakiska" is a Cree word me ...

on Mount Allan on Monday, February 15. 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 Peter Müller, while all-around

Pirmin Zurbriggen Pirmin Zurbriggen (born 4 February 1963) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the most successful ski racers ever, he won the overall World Cup title four times, an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Downhill, and nine Wor ...

was the defending

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, led the current season, and was a medal threat in all five alpine events. Defending

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

champion Bill Johnson did not make the

U.S. Olympic team United States of America (USA) has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern era Olympic Games, except for the 1980 Summer Olympics, during which it led a boycott to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. American athletes have w ...

; this was the third of four consecutive Olympics without the defending champion in the field. The race was postponed a day due to winds that gusted to at the exposed summit; Zurbriggen took the gold and Müller the silver, a half-second behind. More than a second behind the runner-up was bronze medalist

Franck Piccard Franck Piccard (born 17 September 1965) is a French former Alpine skier. A native of Les Saisies, Piccard won a total of four Alpine skiing World Cup races. At the 1988 Olympics in Calgary he won a gold medal in the Super-G competition (the fi ...

. Leonhard Stock, the

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champion, was fourth, but nearly two seconds behind Zurbriggen. The course started at an

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of above

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with a vertical drop of and a course length of . Zurbriggen's winning time of 119.63 seconds yielded an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of .

Results

The race was started at 11:30

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 −7). At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was , and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was . :

References

External links

FIS results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics - Men's downhill Men's downhill

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...