The marquee event of alpine skiing was held on Sunday, February 10, at the

Snowbasin Snowbasin Resort is a ski resort in the western United States, located in Weber County, Utah, northeast of Salt Lake City, on the back (east) side of the Wasatch Range. Opened in 1939, as part of an effort by the city of Ogden to restore the ...

ski area A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort. ...

, east of Ogden under clear skies. Designed by

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 mean solar tim ...

gold medalist

Bernhard Russi Bernhard Russi (born 20 August 1948) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. Born in Andermatt in the canton of Uri, he is an Olympic, World Cup, and World champion in the downhill event.Grizzly The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

Downhill" course was just in length, and began at a lofty 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 standardise ...

, with a vertical drop of . The average gradient on the Grizzly Downhill was 30.87% (17.98°), exceeding the classic layouts of Kitzbühel (860 m vertical / 3312 m length = 25.97%, 15.05°) and

Wengen Wengen () is a mountain village in the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland. Located in the canton of Bern at an elevation of above sea level, it is part of the Jungfrauregion and has approximately 1,300 year-round residents, which swells to ...

(1025 m vertical / 4455 m length = 23.01%, 13.30°). The top five finishers completed the course in less than a hundred seconds, making it the quickest descending Olympic downhil

The average speed of the medalists for the entire course exceeded , rating it among the fastest courses in international competition. Pre-race favorite Stephan Eberharter of

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 ...

took the bronze medal, bested by compatriot

Fritz Strobl Fritz Strobl (born 24 August 1972 in Lienz, Austria) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer. Strobl was the gold medalist in the downhill at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, run on the Grizzly course at Snowbasin. In his f ...

and all-arounder

Lasse Kjus Lasse Kjus (born 14 January 1971) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Norway. He won the overall World Cup title twice, an Olympic gold medal, and several World Championships. His combined career total of 16 Olympic and World Champions ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. Strobl's average speed was , at an average vertical descent of .

Results

The race was started at 10:00

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

References

External links

Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpine Skiing At The 2002 Winter Olympics - Men's Downhill

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 ...