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
Pictogram for alpine skiing
VenueSestriere
DateFebruary 12
Competitors55 from 25 nations
Winning time1:48.80
Medalists
Antoine Dénériaz  France
Michael Walchhofer  Austria
Bruno Kernen  Switzerland
Men's Downhill
LocationSestriere
Kandahar Banchetta
Vertical   914 m (2,999 ft)
Top elevation2,800 m (9,186 ft)  
Base elevation1,886 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).

RankBibNameCountryTimeDifference
30 Antoine Dénériaz  France 1:48.80
10 Michael Walchhofer  Austria 1:49.52 +0.72
14 Bruno Kernen  Switzerland 1:49.82 +1.02
4 17 Kjetil André Aamodt  Norway 1:49.88 +1.08
5 18 Bode Miller  United States 1:49.93 +1.13
6 15 Hermann Maier  Austria 1:50.00 +1.20
7 28 Marco Büchel  Liechtenstein 1:50.04 +1.24
8 4 Fritz Strobl  Austria 1:50.12 +1.32
9 25 Patrick Staudacher  Italy 1:50.29 +1.49
10 20 Daron Rahlves  United States 1:50.33 +1.53
11 22 Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin  France 1:50.35 +1.55
12 3 Tobias Grünenfelder  Switzerland 1:50.44 +1.64
13 29 Manuel Osborne-Paradis  Canada 1:50.45 +1.65
14 8 Lasse Kjus  Norway 1:50.64 +1.84
15 23 Scott Macartney  United States 1:50.68 +1.88
16 11 François Bourque  Canada 1:50.70 +1.90
17 13 Ambrosi Hoffmann  Switzerland 1:50.72 +1.92
18 6 Kurt Sulzenbacher  Italy 1:50.84 +2.04
19 27 Steve Nyman  United States 1:50.88 +2.08
19 Peter Fill  Italy
21 26 Aksel Lund Svindal  Norway 1:50.90 +2.10
22 21 Klaus Kröll  Austria 1:50.91 +2.11
23 12 Kristian Ghedina  Italy 1:50.98 +2.18
24 16 Yannick Bertrand  France 1:51.37 +2.57
25 2 Finlay Mickel  Great Britain 1:51.48 +2.68
26 24 Didier Défago  Switzerland 1:51.51 +2.71
27 7 John Kucera  Canada 1:51.55 +2.75
28 32 Andrej Jerman  Slovenia 1:51.70 +2.90
29 9 Bjarne Solbakken  Norway 1:51.72 +2.92
30 38 Pavel Chestakov  Russia 1:51.93 +3.13
31 34 Andrej Šporn  Slovenia 1:52.17 +3.37
32 1 Craig Branch  Australia 1:52.55 +3.75
33 31 Patrik Järbyn  Sweden 1:52.87 +4.07
34 39 Petr Záhrobský  Czech Republic 1:52.90 +4.10
35 35 Claudio Sprecher  Liechtenstein 1:53.34 +4.54
36 36 Bořek Zakouřil  Czech Republic 1:54.07 +5.27
37 33 Roger Cruickshank  Great Britain 1:54.65 +5.85
38 42 Aleksandr Khoroshilov  Russia 1:54.70 +5.90
39 37 Alex Antor  Andorra 1:55.01 +6.21
40 41 Konstantin Sats  Russia 1:55.03 +6.23
41 47 Mikael Gayme  Chile 1:55.73 +6.93
42 40 Maui Gayme  Chile 1:56.10 +7.30
43 45 Nikolai Hentsch  Brazil 1:56.58 +7.78
44 49 Michał Kałwa  Poland 1:56.81 +8.01
45 54 Jaroslav Babušiak  Slovakia 1:57.45 +8.65
46 43 Renārs Doršs  Latvia 1:57.54 +8.74
47 51 Nikolay Skriabin  Ukraine 1:57.56 +8.76
48 46 Sindri Már Pálsson  Iceland 1:57.69 +8.89
49 50 Jorge Mandrú  Chile 1:58.77 +9.97
50 48 Roger Vidosa  Andorra 1:59.24 +10.44
51 52 Andrei Drygin  Tajikistan 1:59.41 +10.61
52 53 Alexander Heath  South Africa 1:59.79 +10.99
53 44 Florentin Nicolae  Romania 2:00.93 +12.13
5 Ondřej Bank  Czech Republic DNF
55 Ivan Heimschild  Slovakia DNF

References

  1. "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.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2010-03-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Fendrich, Howard (February 13, 2006). "Sacré bleu! Deneriaz springs surprise". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. p. D5.
  4. "Olympic report: Alpine skiing". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). wire services. February 13, 2006. p. C3.
  5. Layden, Tim (February 20, 2006). "Slow out of the gate". Sports Illustrated. p. 45.
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