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The men's downhill of the 2006 Winter Olympics was held at Sestriere, Italy, on Sunday, 12 February.
Men's downhill at the XX Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
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Venue | Sestriere | ||||||||||||
Date | February 12 | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 55 from 25 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 1:48.80 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Men's downhill | |
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Location | Sestriere Kandahar Banchetta |
Vertical | 914 m (2,999 ft) |
Top elevation | 2,800 m (9,186 ft) |
Base elevation | 1,886 m (6,188 ft) |
The men's downhill competition is the marquee outdoor event of the Winter Olympics, and is the first alpine event on the schedule. It consists of a single high-speed run down a challenging slope, with a vertical drop exceeding 800 meters (2,625 ft).[1]
The defending Olympic champion was Fritz Strobl of Austria, the reigning world champion was Bode Miller of the United States; Austrian Michael Walchhofer was the defending World Cup downhill champion and led the current season entering the Olympics, ahead of Strobl and American Daron Rahlves.[2]
The thirtieth racer on the course, Antoine Dénériaz of France won the gold medal, Walchhofer took the silver, and the bronze medalist was Bruno Kernen of Switzerland; Miller was fifth, Strobl eighth, and Rahlves tenth.[3][4][5] Dénériaz's surprise win was by a margin of 0.72 seconds, the largest in this event in 42 years.[3] He had entered the Olympics tied for tenth in the World Cup downhill standings; his best finish was seventh at Val Gardena in mid-December.
Held on the Kandahar Banchetta piste, the course started at an elevation of 2,800 m (9,186 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 914 m (2,999 ft) and a length of 3.299 km (2.05 mi). Dénériaz's winning time of 108.80 seconds yielded an average course speed of 109.158 km/h (67.8 mph), with an average vertical descent speed of 8.401 m/s (27.6 ft/s).
The race was started at 12:00 local time, (UTC +1). At the starting gate, the skies were partly cloudy, the temperature was −5.6 °C (22 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was 2.1 °C (36 °F).
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