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Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill
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The Men's downhill competition of the Calgary 1988 Olympics was held at the newly-developed Nakiska on Mount Allan on Monday, February 15.

The reigning world champion was Peter Müller, while all-around Pirmin Zurbriggen was the defending World Cup downhill champion, led the current season, and was a medal threat in all five alpine events. Defending Olympic champion Bill Johnson did not make the U.S. Olympic team; 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 98 mph (158 km/h) 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. Leonhard Stock, the 1980 champion, was fourth, but nearly two seconds behind Zurbriggen.

The course started at an elevation of 2,412 m (7,913 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 874 m (2,867 ft) and a course length of 3.147 km (1.96 mi). Zurbriggen's winning time of 119.63 seconds yielded an average speed of 94.702 km/h (58.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.306 m/s (24.0 ft/s).