The Men's Downhill competition of the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held at Patscherkofel on Thursday, 5 February,[1][2][3] on the same course as in 1964.[4]
| Men's downhill at the XII Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Patscherkofel Tyrol, Austria | ||||||||||||
| Date | 5 February 1976 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 74 from 27 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:45.73 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Men's Downhill | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Patscherkofel |
| Vertical | 870 m (2,854 ft) |
| Top elevation | 1,950 m (6,398 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,080 m (3,543 ft) |
The defending world champion was David Zwilling of Austria, who had recently retired; Bernhard Russi of Switzerland was the defending Olympic champion. Franz Klammer of Austria was the defending World Cup downhill champion and led the current season;[5][6] he had also won the pre-Olympic World Cup downhill at Patcherkofel a year earlier in January 1975.
Klammer won the gold medal, Russi took the silver, and Herbert Plank of Italy was the bronze medalist.[1][2][7]
The starting gate was at an elevation of 1,950 m (6,398 ft) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 870 m (2,854 ft).[3] The course length was 3.020 km (1.88 mi) and Klammer's famous winning run resulted in an average speed of 102.828 km/h (63.9 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 8.2285 m/s (27.0 ft/s), significantly faster than previous Olympic downhills. At age 22, the win elevated him to an international celebrity and he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.[7]
Egon Zimmermann, also of Austria, took the gold medal a dozen years earlier in the 1964 Olympic downhill. His winning time was 2:18.16, more than a half-minute behind Klammer's.
Through 2022, no Olympic men's downhill champion has repeated; Russi remains the sole defender to medal.
Results edit
- Source:[3]
References edit
- ^ a b "Skier, skater, give U.S. silver". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. 5 February 1976. p. 1C.
- ^ a b Myers, Morley (February 5, 1976). "Austrian ace Klammer wins downhill". Nashua Telegraph. (New Hampshire). UPI. p. 21.
- ^ a b c "Final Report - XII. Olympische Winterspiele Innsbruck 1976" (PDF). Organizing Committee for the XIIth Winter Olympic Games 1976. LA84 Foundation. 1976. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Alpine Skiing at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Games: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ "1975 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "1974 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ a b Johnson, William Oscar (16 February 1976). "On came the heroes". Sports Illustrated. p. 10.