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
1st place, gold medalist(s) Antoine Dénériaz  France
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Michael Walchhofer  Austria
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Bruno Kernen  Switzerland
← 2002
2010 →
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

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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).

Rank Bib Name Country Time Difference
  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

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  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. ^ "FIS-Ski - Cup Standings". Archived from the original on 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
  3. ^ a b 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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