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 | |||||||||||||
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![]() Pictogram for alpine skiing | |||||||||||||
Venue | Sestriere | ||||||||||||
Date | February 12 | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 55 from 25 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 1:48.80 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Alpine skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics | ||
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Combined | men | women |
Downhill | men | women |
Giant slalom | men | women |
Slalom | men | women |
Super-G | men | women |
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).
Results
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).
Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Difference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
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30 | Antoine Dénériaz | ![]() |
1:48.80 | — |
![]() |
10 | Michael Walchhofer | ![]() |
1:49.52 | +0.72 |
![]() |
14 | Bruno Kernen | ![]() |
1:49.82 | +1.02 |
4 | 17 | Kjetil André Aamodt | ![]() |
1:49.88 | +1.08 |
5 | 18 | Bode Miller | ![]() |
1:49.93 | +1.13 |
6 | 15 | Hermann Maier | ![]() |
1:50.00 | +1.20 |
7 | 28 | Marco Büchel | ![]() |
1:50.04 | +1.24 |
8 | 4 | Fritz Strobl | ![]() |
1:50.12 | +1.32 |
9 | 25 | Patrick Staudacher | ![]() |
1:50.29 | +1.49 |
10 | 20 | Daron Rahlves | ![]() |
1:50.33 | +1.53 |
11 | 22 | Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin | ![]() |
1:50.35 | +1.55 |
12 | 3 | Tobias Grünenfelder | ![]() |
1:50.44 | +1.64 |
13 | 29 | Manuel Osborne-Paradis | ![]() |
1:50.45 | +1.65 |
14 | 8 | Lasse Kjus | ![]() |
1:50.64 | +1.84 |
15 | 23 | Scott Macartney | ![]() |
1:50.68 | +1.88 |
16 | 11 | François Bourque | ![]() |
1:50.70 | +1.90 |
17 | 13 | Ambrosi Hoffmann | ![]() |
1:50.72 | +1.92 |
18 | 6 | Kurt Sulzenbacher | ![]() |
1:50.84 | +2.04 |
19 | 27 | Steve Nyman | ![]() |
1:50.88 | +2.08 |
19 | Peter Fill | ![]() | |||
21 | 26 | Aksel Lund Svindal | ![]() |
1:50.90 | +2.10 |
22 | 21 | Klaus Kröll | ![]() |
1:50.91 | +2.11 |
23 | 12 | Kristian Ghedina | ![]() |
1:50.98 | +2.18 |
24 | 16 | Yannick Bertrand | ![]() |
1:51.37 | +2.57 |
25 | 2 | Finlay Mickel | ![]() |
1:51.48 | +2.68 |
26 | 24 | Didier Défago | ![]() |
1:51.51 | +2.71 |
27 | 7 | John Kucera | ![]() |
1:51.55 | +2.75 |
28 | 32 | Andrej Jerman | ![]() |
1:51.70 | +2.90 |
29 | 9 | Bjarne Solbakken | ![]() |
1:51.72 | +2.92 |
30 | 38 | Pavel Chestakov | ![]() |
1:51.93 | +3.13 |
31 | 34 | Andrej Šporn | ![]() |
1:52.17 | +3.37 |
32 | 1 | Craig Branch | ![]() |
1:52.55 | +3.75 |
33 | 31 | Patrik Järbyn | ![]() |
1:52.87 | +4.07 |
34 | 39 | Petr Záhrobský | ![]() |
1:52.90 | +4.10 |
35 | 35 | Claudio Sprecher | ![]() |
1:53.34 | +4.54 |
36 | 36 | Bořek Zakouřil | ![]() |
1:54.07 | +5.27 |
37 | 33 | Roger Cruickshank | ![]() |
1:54.65 | +5.85 |
38 | 42 | Aleksandr Khoroshilov | ![]() |
1:54.70 | +5.90 |
39 | 37 | Alex Antor | ![]() |
1:55.01 | +6.21 |
40 | 41 | Konstantin Sats | ![]() |
1:55.03 | +6.23 |
41 | 47 | Mikael Gayme | ![]() |
1:55.73 | +6.93 |
42 | 40 | Maui Gayme | ![]() |
1:56.10 | +7.30 |
43 | 45 | Nikolai Hentsch | ![]() |
1:56.58 | +7.78 |
44 | 49 | Michał Kałwa | ![]() |
1:56.81 | +8.01 |
45 | 54 | Jaroslav Babušiak | ![]() |
1:57.45 | +8.65 |
46 | 43 | Renārs Doršs | ![]() |
1:57.54 | +8.74 |
47 | 51 | Nikolay Skriabin | ![]() |
1:57.56 | +8.76 |
48 | 46 | Sindri Már Pálsson | ![]() |
1:57.69 | +8.89 |
49 | 50 | Jorge Mandrú | ![]() |
1:58.77 | +9.97 |
50 | 48 | Roger Vidosa | ![]() |
1:59.24 | +10.44 |
51 | 52 | Andrei Drygin | ![]() |
1:59.41 | +10.61 |
52 | 53 | Alexander Heath | ![]() |
1:59.79 | +10.99 |
53 | 44 | Florentin Nicolae | ![]() |
2:00.93 | +12.13 |
5 | Ondřej Bank | ![]() |
DNF | ||
55 | Ivan Heimschild | ![]() |
DNF |
References
- "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.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2010-03-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- 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.