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.[1][2]
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.[3][4][5] 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 98 mph (158 km/h) at the exposed summit;[6] Zurbriggen took the gold and Müller the silver, a half-second behind.[7] More than a second behind the runner-up was bronze medalist Franck Piccard.[8] Leonhard Stock, the 1980 champion, was fourth, but nearly two seconds behind Zurbriggen.
The course started at an elevation of 2,412 m (7,913 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 874 m (2,867 ft) and a course length of 3.147 km (1.96 mi). Zurbriggen's winning time of 119.63 seconds yielded an average speed of 94.702 km/h (58.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.306 m/s (24.0 ft/s).
