| Men's downhill at the XIX Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
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 Pictogram for alpine skiing | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Snowbasin | ||||||||||||
| Date | February 10, 2002 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 55 from 22 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:39.13 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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| ← 19982006 → | |||||||||||||
| Alpine skiing at the 2002 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 | |
|---|---|
| Location | Snowbasin Grizzly Downhill |
| Vertical | 883 m (2,897 ft) |
| Top elevation | 2,831 m (9,288 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,948 m (6,391 ft) |
The marquee event of alpine skiing was held on Sunday, February 10, at the Snowbasin ski area, east of Ogden under clear skies.
Designed by 1972 gold medalist Bernhard Russi, the steep "Grizzly Downhill" course was just 1.777 miles (2.860 km) in length, and began at a lofty 9,288 feet (2,831 m) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 2,897 feet (883 m). The average gradient on the Grizzly Downhill was 30.87% (17.98°), exceeding the classic layouts of Kitzbühel (860 m vertical / 3312 m length = 25.97%, 15.05°) and Wengen (1025 m vertical / 4455 m length = 23.01%, 13.30°).
The top five finishers completed the course in less than a hundred seconds, making it the quickest descending Olympic downhill. The average speed of the medalists for the entire course exceeded 64 mph (103 km/h), rating it among the fastest courses in international competition.
Pre-race favorite Stephan Eberharter of Austria took the bronze medal, bested by compatriot Fritz Strobl and all-arounder Lasse Kjus of Norway. Strobl's average speed was 64.538 mph (103.864 km/h), at an average vertical descent of 29.224 ft/s (8.907 m/s).
Results
The race was started at 10:00 local time, (UTC −7). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was −3.0 °C (27 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was lower, at −4.0 °C (25 °F).
References
- "Alpine Skiing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games: Men's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- ^ Layden, Tim (February 18, 2002). "Grizzly Bear". Sports Illustrated. p. 46.
- "Strobl's downhill shock". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. February 11, 2002. p. C6.
- Pennington, Bill (February 11, 2002). "Austria's downhill dominance returns". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). (New York Times). p. 1E.
External links
| Olympic champions in alpine skiing – men's downhill | |
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