Alpine skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill
The Men's Downhill competition of the Nagano 1998 Olympics was held at Hakuba on Friday, February 13.[1][2][3] Originally scheduled for Sunday, the race was postponed several times due to heavy snow, followed by rain and gusty winds.
| Men's Downhill at the XVIII Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Hakuba | ||||||||||||
| Date | February 13 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 43 from 18 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:50.11 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Alpine skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Combined | men | women |
| Downhill | men | women |
| Giant slalom | men | women |
| Slalom | men | women |
| Super-G | men | women |
| Men's Downhill | |
|---|---|
| Location | Hakuba – Happo-One Olympic Course I |
| Vertical | 925 m (3,035 ft) |
| Top elevation | 1,765 m (5,791 ft) |
| Base elevation | 840 m (2,756 ft) |
The reigning world champion was Bruno Kernen of Switzerland, while France's Luc Alphand was the reigning World Cup downhill champion,[4][5] but had since retired from competition. The defending Olympic champion was Tommy Moe of the United States.
France's Jean-Luc Crétier won the gold medal, Lasse Kjus of Norway took the silver, and the bronze medalist was Hannes Trinkl of Austria; Moe was twelfth and Kernan did not finish.[6] Nine of the first twenty failed to finish, including a spectacular crash by favorite Hermann Maier of Austria, which he fortunately walked away from.[6][7] Luca Cattaneo's injury caused a half-hour delay underneath the clear skies, as the temperature at the finish approached 15 °C (59 °F). Of the eight with bib numbers 13 through 20, only Moe completed the race;[1] in total, fifteen of the 43 racers did not finish.
It was the sole victory of Crétier's career; he had five World cup podiums, three of which were in the two months preceding the Olympics, at the notable venues of Beaver Creek, Wengen, and Kitzbühel. Entering the Olympics, he was fourth in the season's World Cup downhill standings.[6]
The course started at an elevation of 1,765 m (5,791 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 925 m (3,035 ft) and a course length of 3.289 km (2.04 mi). Crétier's winning time was 110.11 seconds, yielding an average course speed of 107.532 km/h (66.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 8.401 m/s (27.6 ft/s).
Results
The race was started at 11:00 local time, (UTC +9). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was 2.3 °C (36 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish at 12.3 °C (54 °F).[2]
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- Source[2]
References
- Gloster, Rob (February 13, 1998). "Cretier dominates the downhill". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. p. 1C.
- "Nagano 1998 Official Report - Volume 3" (PDF). Nagano Olympics Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. 1998. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2008. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
- "Alpine Skiing at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
- "1997 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
- "1997 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
- "Crash course". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Knight-Ridder. February 13, 1998.
- Layden, Tim (February 23, 1998). "Street fighting". Sports Illustrated. p. 40.
External links
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