Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill


The Men's downhill competition of the Calgary 1988 Olympics was held at the newly-developed Nakiska on Mount Allan on Monday, February 15.
The reigning world champion was Peter Müller, while all-around Pirmin Zurbriggen was the defending World Cup downhill champion, led the current season, and was a medal threat in all five alpine events. Defending Olympic champion Bill Johnson did not make the U.S. Olympic team; this was the third of four consecutive Olympics without the defending champion in the field.
The race was postponed a day due to winds that gusted to at the exposed summit; Zurbriggen took the gold and Müller the silver, a half-second behind. More than a second behind the runner-up was bronze medalist Franck Piccard. Leonhard Stock, the 1980 champion, was fourth, but nearly two seconds behind Zurbriggen.
The course started at an elevation of above sea level with a vertical drop of and a course length of. Zurbriggen's winning time of 119.63 seconds yielded an average speed of, with an average vertical descent rate of.

Results

The race was started at 11:30 local time,. At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was, and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was.
RankBibNameCountryTimeDifference
14Pirmin Zurbriggen1:59.63—
1Peter Müller2:00.14+0.51
15Franck Piccard2:01.24+1.61
412Leonhard Stock2:01.56+1.93
521Gerhard Pfaffenbichler2:02.02+2.39
69Markus Wasmeier2:02.03+2.40
710Anton Steiner2:02.19+2.56
826Martin Bell2:02.49+2.86
98Marc Girardelli2:02.59+2.96
1013Danilo Sbardellotto2:02.69+3.06
1128Shinya Chiba2:03.16+3.53
123Daniel Mahrer2:03.18+3.55
1325Hannes Zehentner2:03.23+3.60
1435Mike Carney2:03.25+3.62
1516Atle Skårdal2:03.26+3.63
167Rob Boyd2:03.27+3.64
176Franz Heinzer2:03.36+3.73
1811Felix Belczyk2:03.59+3.96
1937Günther Mader2:03.96+4.33
2024Hansjörg Tauscher2:04.31+4.68
2120Peter Dürr2:04.32+4.69
2230Steven Lee2:04.46+4.83
2333Graham Bell2:04.56+4.93
2419Jan Einar Thorsen2:04.77+5.14
252Christophe Plé2:04.78+5.15
2632A J Kitt2:04.94+5.31
2718Lars-Börje Eriksson2:05.02+5.39
2827Jeff Olson2:05.09+5.46
2943Peter Jurko2:05.32+5.69
3034Niklas Henning2:05.52+5.89
3117Igor Cigolla2:05.85+6.22
3229Doug Lewis2:06.25+6.62
3339Adrian Bireš2:06.34+6.71
3436Katsuhito Kumagai2:07.17+7.54
3545Finn Christian Jagge2:07.64+8.01
3651Silvio Wille2:07.77+8.14
3737Boris Duncan2:07.88+8.25
3846Gregor Hoop2:08.50+8.87
3947Robert Büchel2:08.66+9.03
4044Niklas Lindqvist2:09.41+9.78
4140Nils Linneberg2:09.83+10.20
4241Dieter Linneberg2:11.16+11.53
4349Hubertus von Hohenlohe2:12.58+12.95
4448Jorge Birkner2:14.20+14.57
4550Javier Rivara2:16.79+17.16
-42Peter ForrasDNF-
-31Bill HudsonDNF-
-4Luc AlphandDNF-
-23Michael MairDNF-
-22Philippe VerneretDQ-
-5Brian StemmleDQ-