The Men's downhill competition of the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

was held at

Bjelašnica Bjelašnica ( sr-Cyrl, Бјелашница, ) is a mountain in the Dinaric Alps 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, r ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. 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 of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, while teammate

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

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 name is ...

downhill champion and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

's Urs Räber led the current season. Similar to

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, the defending Olympic downhill champion was from

and did not compete;

Leonhard Stock Leonhard Stock (born 14 March 1958) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Career Stock earned his first World Cup points at age 18 in January 1977. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, Stock was originally an alternate fo ...

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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

became the first from outside the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

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 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

), and sixth (

1976 Events January * January 2 – 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 18 – Full diplomatic ...

); American women had won three medals (

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

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, ...

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

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

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, (

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

+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