Alpine_skiing_at_the_1992_Winter_Olympics_–_Men's_downhill
The Men's Downhill competition of the Albertville 1992 Olympics was held at Val d'Isère on Sunday, 9 February.[1][2]
The defending world champion was Franz Heinzer of Switzerland, who was also the defending World Cup downhill champion and led the current season.[3][4] Defending Olympic champion Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland had retired from competition two years earlier; this was the fourth consecutive Olympics without the defending champion in the field.
The race was run on a new course on La face de Bellevarde, designed by 1972 champion Bernhard Russi. Austria's Patrick Ortlieb, who had yet to win a World Cup event, won the gold medal; Franck Piccard of France was only 0.05 seconds back to take the silver, and the bronze medalist was Günther Mader of Austria.[5][6] Ortlieb was first racer on the course, and he became the fifth Austrian to win the event, in its twelfth edition. Heinzer was sixth, more than a second back.
The course started at an elevation of 2,809 m (9,216 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 973 m (3,192 ft) and a course length of 3.048 km (1.89 mi). Ortlieb's winning time of 110.37 seconds yielded an average course speed of 99.418 km/h (61.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 8.816 m/s (28.9 ft/s).
