Alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

Men's downhill
at the XIX Olympic Winter Games

Pictogram for alpine skiing
Venue Snowbasin
Date February 10
Competitors 55 from 22 nations
Winning time 1:39.13
Medalists
  Fritz Strobl   Austria
  Lasse Kjus   Norway
  Stephan Eberharter   Austria
«1998 2006»
Alpine skiing at the
2002 Winter Olympics
Combined   men   women
Downhill men women
Giant slalom men women
Slalom men women
Super-G men women

The marquee event of alpine skiing was held on February 10th 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 1.77 miles (2.86 km) in length, and began at a lofty 9288 feet (2831 m) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 2897 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 100 seconds, making it the quickest descending Olympic downhill, at an average vertical descent of more than 29 ft/s (8.8 m/s). [1] 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 the all-rounder Lasse Kjus of Norway.

Results

The results of the men's downhill event in Alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Rank Name Country Time Difference
Fritz Strobl Austria 1:39.13
Lasse Kjus Norway 1:39.35 +0.22
Stephan Eberharter Austria 1:39.41 +0.28
4 Kjetil André Aamodt Norway 1:39.78 +0.65
5 Claude Cretier France 1:39.96 +0.83
6 Christian Greber Austria 1:40.00 +0.87
7 Fredrik Nyberg Sweden 1:40.30 +1.17
8 Ambrosi Hoffmann Switzerland 1:40.31 +1.18
9 Marco Sullivan United States 1:40.37 +1.24
10 Sébastien Fournier-Bidoz France 1:40.39 +1.26
11 Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin France 1:40.58 +1.45
12 Bjarne Solbakken Norway 1:40.74 +1.61
12 Antoine Dénériaz France 1:40.74 +1.61
14 Didier Cuche Switzerland 1:40.76 +1.63
15 Franco Cavegn Switzerland 1:40.81 +1.68
16 Daron Rahlves United States 1:40.84 +1.71
17 Roland Fischnaller Italy 1:40.85 +1.72
18 Patrik Järbyn Sweden 1:41.05 +1.92
19 Alessandro Fattori Italy 1:41.24 +2.11
20 Christoph Gruber Austria 1:41.25 +2.12
21 Didier Défago Switzerland 1:41.27 +2.14
22 Kurt Sulzenbacher Italy 1:41.56 +2.43
23 Peter Pen Slovenia 1:41.66 +2.53
24 Ed Podivinsky Canada 1:41.69 +2.56
25 Kenneth Sivertsen Norway 1:41.70 +2.57
26 Juergen Hasler Liechtenstein 1:41.76 +2.63
27 Jakub Fiala United States 1:41.84 +2.71
28 Andrej Jerman Slovenia 1:41.85 +2.72
29 Marco Büchel Liechtenstein 1:41.86 +2.73
29 Scott Macartney United States 1:41.86 +2.73
31 Gregor Sparovec Slovenia 1:41.88 +2.75
32 Darin McBeath Canada 1:42.15 +3.02
33 Jernej Koblar Slovenia 1:42.41 +3.18
34 Max Rauffer Germany 1:42.52 +3.39
35 Kristian Ghedina Italy 1:42.54 +3.41
36 Maxim Kedrin Russia 1:43.04 +3.91
37 AJ Bear Australia 1:43.19 +4.06
38 Dave Anderson Canada 1:43.20 +4.07
39 Ondřej Bank Czech Republic 1:43.33 +4.20
40 Borek Zakouril Czech Republic 1:43.63 +4.50
41 Andrey Filichkin Russia 1:43.73 +4.60
42 Yasuyuki Takishita Japan 1:43.75 +4.62
43 Pavel Chestakov Russia 1:44.35 +5.22
44 Sergey Komarov Russia 1:45.25 +6.12
45 Craig Branch Australia 1:45.34 +6.21
46 Jan Holicky Czech Republic 1:45.59 +6.36
47 Ivan Heimschild Slovakia 1:46.36 +7.23
48 Maui Gayme Chile 1:47.63 +8.50
49 Nikolay Skriabin Ukraine 1:47.65 +8.52
50 Mikael Gayme Chile 1:48.37 +9.24
51 Alexander Heath South Africa 1:48.84 +9.71
52 Nicolas Arsel Argentina 1:49.75 +10.62
53 Paul Schwarzacher-Joyce Ireland 1:54.42 +15.29
Ross Green Great Britain DNS
Cristian Javier Simari Birkner Argentina DSQ

References