The Women's Downhill competition of the Calgary 1988 Olympics was held at Nakiska on Friday, February 19.[1][2] The race was delayed a day due to high winds on Thursday.[3]
| Women's downhill at the XV Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Nakiska | ||||||||||||
| Date | February 19 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 35 from 14 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:25.86 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Women's downhill | |
|---|---|
| Location | Nakiska |
| Vertical | 647 m (2,123 ft) |
| Top elevation | 2,179 m (7,149 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,532 m (5,026 ft) |
The defending world champion was Maria Walliser of Switzerland, while teammate Michela Figini was the defending Olympic and World Cup downhill champion and led the current season.[4][5]
West Germany's Marina Kiehl won the gold medal, Brigitte Oertli of Switzerland took silver, and Karen Percy of Canada was the bronze medalist; Walliser was fourth and Figini finished ninth.[6]
The course started at an elevation of 2,179 m (7,149 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 647 m (2,123 ft) and a course length of 2.238 km (1.39 mi). Kiehl's winning time was 85.86 seconds, yielding an average speed of 93.836 km/h (58.3 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.536 m/s (24.7 ft/s).
Results
editThe race was started at 10:00 local time, (UTC −7). At the starting gate, the skies were partly cloudy, the temperature was −2 °C (28 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was 4 °C (39 °F).
References
edit- ^ a b "Calgary 1988 Official Report" (PDF). XV Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. 1988. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Alpine Skiing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games: Women's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ a b "U.S. skiers getting all the breaks". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire reports. February 19, 1988. p. 5B.
- ^ "1987 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "1987 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ a b "Women's Downhill". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. February 20, 1988. p. B3.