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

The Men's downhill competition of the Calgary 1988 Olympics was held at the newly-developed Nakiska on Mount Allan on Monday, February 15.^[1][2]

Men's Downhill at the XV Olympic Winter Games
Alpine skiing
Venue	Nakiska, Kananaskis Village, Alberta, Canada
Date	February 15, 1988
Competitors	51 from 18 nations
Winning time	1:59.63
Medalists
Pirmin Zurbriggen  Switzerland Peter Müller  Switzerland Franck Piccard  France
← 1984 1992 →

Men's Downhill
Location	Nakiska
Vertical	874 m (2,867 ft)
Top elevation	2,412 m (7,913 ft)
Base elevation	1,538 m (5,046 ft)

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.^[3][4][5] 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;^[6] Zurbriggen took the gold and Müller the silver, a half-second behind.^[7] More than a second behind the runner-up was bronze medalist Franck Piccard.^[8] 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).

Results

The race was started at 11:30 local time, (UTC −7). At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was −7 °C (19 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was 0 °C (32 °F).

Rank	Bib	Name	Country	Time	Difference
	14	Pirmin Zurbriggen	Switzerland	1:59.63	—
	1	Peter Müller	Switzerland	2:00.14	+0.51
	15	Franck Piccard	France	2:01.24	+1.61
4	12	Leonhard Stock	Austria	2:01.56	+1.93
5	21	Gerhard Pfaffenbichler	Austria	2:02.02	+2.39
6	9	Markus Wasmeier	West Germany	2:02.03	+2.40
7	10	Anton Steiner	Austria	2:02.19	+2.56
8	26	Martin Bell	Great Britain	2:02.49	+2.86
9	8	Marc Girardelli	Luxembourg	2:02.59	+2.96
10	13	Danilo Sbardellotto	Italy	2:02.69	+3.06
11	28	Shinya Chiba	Japan	2:03.16	+3.53
12	3	Daniel Mahrer	Switzerland	2:03.18	+3.55
13	25	Hannes Zehentner	West Germany	2:03.23	+3.60
14	35	Mike Carney	Canada	2:03.25	+3.62
15	16	Atle Skårdal	Norway	2:03.26	+3.63
16	7	Rob Boyd	Canada	2:03.27	+3.64
17	6	Franz Heinzer	Switzerland	2:03.36	+3.73
18	11	Felix Belczyk	Canada	2:03.59	+3.96
19	37	Günther Mader	Austria	2:03.96	+4.33
20	24	Hansjörg Tauscher	West Germany	2:04.31	+4.68
21	20	Peter Dürr	West Germany	2:04.32	+4.69
22	30	Steven Lee	Australia	2:04.46	+4.83
23	33	Graham Bell	Great Britain	2:04.56	+4.93
24	19	Jan Einar Thorsen	Norway	2:04.77	+5.14
25	2	Christophe Plé	France	2:04.78	+5.15
26	32	A J Kitt	United States	2:04.94	+5.31
27	18	Lars-Börje Eriksson	Sweden	2:05.02	+5.39
28	27	Jeff Olson	United States	2:05.09	+5.46
29	43	Peter Jurko	Czechoslovakia	2:05.32	+5.69
30	34	Niklas Henning	Sweden	2:05.52	+5.89
31	17	Igor Cigolla	Italy	2:05.85	+6.22
32	29	Doug Lewis	United States	2:06.25	+6.62
33	39	Adrian Bireš	Czechoslovakia	2:06.34	+6.71
34	36	Katsuhito Kumagai	Japan	2:07.17	+7.54
35	45	Finn Christian Jagge	Norway	2:07.64	+8.01
36	51	Silvio Wille	Liechtenstein	2:07.77	+8.14
37	37	Boris Duncan	Great Britain	2:07.88	+8.25
38	46	Gregor Hoop	Liechtenstein	2:08.50	+8.87
39	47	Robert Büchel	Liechtenstein	2:08.66	+9.03
40	44	Niklas Lindqvist	Sweden	2:09.41	+9.78
41	40	Nils Linneberg	Chile	2:09.83	+10.20
42	41	Dieter Linneberg	Chile	2:11.16	+11.53
43	49	Hubertus von Hohenlohe	Mexico	2:12.58	+12.95
44	48	Jorge Birkner	Argentina	2:14.20	+14.57
45	50	Javier Rivara	Argentina	2:16.79	+17.16
-	42	Peter Forras	Australia	DNF	-
-	31	Bill Hudson	United States	DNF	-
-	4	Luc Alphand	France	DNF	-
-	23	Michael Mair	Italy	DNF	-
-	22	Philippe Verneret	France	DQ	-
-	5	Brian Stemmle	Canada	DQ	-

Source:^[1]

References

1. "Calgary 1988 Official Report" (PDF). XV Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. 1988. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
2. "Alpine Skiing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
3. Johnson, William Oscar (January 27, 1988). "The Swiss golden boy". Sports Illustrated. p. 46.
4. "1987 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
5. "1987 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
6. "Downhill blown out". Nashua Telegraph. (New Hampshire). Associated Press. February 15, 1988. p. 15.
7. Lochner, Bob (February 16, 1988). "Zurbriggen snatches downhill gold". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). (Los Angeles Times). p. 3D.
8. "Zurbriggen not worrying about gold". Toledo Blade. (Ohio). Associated Press. February 16, 1988. p. 18.

External links

• FIS results