Alpine skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

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Men's downhill
at the XX Olympic Winter Games
Alpine skiing pictogram.svg
Pictogram for alpine skiing
Venue Sestriere
DateFebruary 12
Competitors55 from 25 nations
Winning time1:48.80
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Antoine Dénériaz Flag of France.svg  France
Silver medal icon.svg Michael Walchhofer Flag of Austria.svg  Austria
Bronze medal icon.svg Bruno Kernen Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland
  2002
2010  
Men's downhill
Location Sestriere
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 of the 2006 Winter Olympics was held at Sestriere, Italy, on Sunday, 12 February.

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
Gold medal icon.svg30 Antoine Dénériaz Flag of France.svg  France 1:48.80
Silver medal icon.svg10 Michael Walchhofer Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:49.52+0.72
Bronze medal icon.svg14 Bruno Kernen Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:49.82+1.02
417 Kjetil André Aamodt Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1:49.88+1.08
518 Bode Miller Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:49.93+1.13
615 Hermann Maier Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:50.00+1.20
728 Marco Büchel Flag of Liechtenstein.svg  Liechtenstein 1:50.04+1.24
84 Fritz Strobl Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:50.12+1.32
925 Patrick Staudacher Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:50.29+1.49
1020 Daron Rahlves Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:50.33+1.53
1122 Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin Flag of France.svg  France 1:50.35+1.55
123 Tobias Grünenfelder Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:50.44+1.64
1329 Manuel Osborne-Paradis Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:50.45+1.65
148 Lasse Kjus Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1:50.64+1.84
1523 Scott Macartney Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:50.68+1.88
1611 François Bourque Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:50.70+1.90
1713 Ambrosi Hoffmann Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:50.72+1.92
186 Kurt Sulzenbacher Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:50.84+2.04
1927 Steve Nyman Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:50.88+2.08
19 Peter Fill Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy
2126 Aksel Lund Svindal Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1:50.90+2.10
2221 Klaus Kröll Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:50.91+2.11
2312 Kristian Ghedina Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:50.98+2.18
2416 Yannick Bertrand Flag of France.svg  France 1:51.37+2.57
252 Finlay Mickel Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:51.48+2.68
2624 Didier Défago Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:51.51+2.71
277 John Kucera Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:51.55+2.75
2832 Andrej Jerman Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 1:51.70+2.90
299 Bjarne Solbakken Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1:51.72+2.92
3038 Pavel Chestakov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:51.93+3.13
3134 Andrej Šporn Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 1:52.17+3.37
321 Craig Branch Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:52.55+3.75
3331 Patrik Järbyn Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 1:52.87+4.07
3439 Petr Záhrobský Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 1:52.90+4.10
3535 Claudio Sprecher Flag of Liechtenstein.svg  Liechtenstein 1:53.34+4.54
3636 Bořek Zakouřil Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 1:54.07+5.27
3733 Roger Cruickshank Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:54.65+5.85
3842 Aleksandr Khoroshilov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:54.70+5.90
3937 Alex Antor Flag of Andorra.svg  Andorra 1:55.01+6.21
4041 Konstantin Sats Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:55.03+6.23
4147 Mikael Gayme Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 1:55.73+6.93
4240 Maui Gayme Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 1:56.10+7.30
4345 Nikolai Hentsch Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1:56.58+7.78
4449 Michał Kałwa Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 1:56.81+8.01
4554 Jaroslav Babušiak Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia 1:57.45+8.65
4643 Renārs Doršs Flag of Latvia.svg  Latvia 1:57.54+8.74
4751 Nikolay Skriabin Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 1:57.56+8.76
4846 Sindri Már Pálsson Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 1:57.69+8.89
4950 Jorge Mandrú Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 1:58.77+9.97
5048 Roger Vidosa Flag of Andorra.svg  Andorra 1:59.24+10.44
5152 Andrei Drygin Flag of Tajikistan.svg  Tajikistan 1:59.41+10.61
5253 Alexander Heath Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:59.79+10.99
5344 Florentin Nicolae Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 2:00.93+12.13
5 Ondřej Bank Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic DNF
55 Ivan Heimschild Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia DNF

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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. "FIS-Ski - Cup Standings". Archived from the original on 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
  3. 1 2 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.