Alpine skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill
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 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pictogram for alpine skiing | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Sestriere | ||||||||||||
| Date | February 12 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 55 from 25 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:48.80 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Men's downhill | |
|---|---|
| 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).
Results
editThe 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).
References
edit- ^ "Alpine Skiing at the 2006 Turin Winter Games: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- ^ "FIS-Ski - Cup Standings". Archived from the original on 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
- ^ a b Fendrich, Howard (February 13, 2006). "Sacré bleu! Deneriaz springs surprise". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. p. D5.
- ^ "Olympic report: Alpine skiing". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). wire services. February 13, 2006. p. C3.
- ^ Layden, Tim (February 20, 2006). "Slow out of the gate". Sports Illustrated. p. 45.