Men's downhill at the XXIII Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Venue | Jeongseon Alpine Centre, Gangwon Province, South Korea | ||||||||||||
Date | 15 February 2018 | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 55 from 26 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 1:40.25 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics | ||
---|---|---|
Qualification | ||
Combined | men | women |
Downhill | men | women |
Giant slalom | men | women |
Slalom | men | women |
Super-G | men | women |
Team event | mixed | |
Men's Downhill | |
---|---|
Location | Jeongseon Alpine Centre |
Vertical | 825 m (2,707 ft) |
Top elevation | 1,370 m (4,495 ft) |
Base elevation | 545 m (1,788 ft) |
The men's downhill competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on Thursday, 15 February, at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in PyeongChang. [1] [2] Scheduled for Sunday, 11 February, winds in excess of 50 km/h (31 mph) forced officials to postpone the race four days. [3]
The defending champion was Matthias Mayer. Other competitors included the 2014 silver medalist Christof Innerhofer, the bronze medalist Kjetil Jansrud, as well as the 2010 silver medalist Aksel Lund Svindal. Through 2018, the Olympic men's downhill has yet to have a repeat champion.
Aksel Lund Svindal won the gold medal, with a slight advantage over Kjetil Jansrud (silver) and Beat Feuz (bronze), who gained his first Olympic medal.
The race course was 2.965 km (1.84 mi) in length, with a vertical drop of 825 m (2,707 ft) from a starting elevation of 1,370 m (4,495 ft) above sea level. Svindal had an average speed of 106.474 km/h (66.16 mph) and an average vertical descent rate of 8.229 m/s (27.00 ft/s).
A total of up to 320 alpine skiers qualified across all eleven events. Athletes qualified for this event by having met the A qualification standard only, which meant having 80 or less FIS Points and being ranked in the top 500 in the Olympic FIS points list. The Points list takes into average the best results of athletes per discipline during the qualification period (July 1, 2016 to January 21, 2018). Countries received additional quotas by having athletes ranked in the top 30 of the current World Cup season (two per gender maximum, overall across all events). After the distribution of B standard quotas (to nations competing only in the slalom and giant slalom events), the remaining quotas were distributed using the Olympic FIS Points list, with each athlete only counting once for qualification purposes. A country could only enter a maximum of four athletes for the event. [4]
The race was started at 11:30 local time, (UTC+9). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was −3.8 °C (25 °F), and the snow condition was hard. [5]
Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event during the 1983 season and was added to the official schedule of the World Championships in 1987 and the Winter Olympics in 1988.
Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined. With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.
Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics was held in Canada at Whistler Creekside in Whistler, British Columbia, north of Vancouver. The ten events were scheduled for 13–27 February; weather delayed the first event, the men's downhill, two days until Monday, 15 February.
Kjetil Jansrud is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion. He competed in all alpine disciplines apart from slalom, and his best event was the giant slalom where he has six World Cup podiums and an Olympic silver medal. Since 2012, he had concentrated on the speed events, where all but two of his World Cup victories had come. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he won the super-G and placed third in the downhill. At the World Championships in 2019 at Åre, Jansrud won gold in the downhill. Kjetil is the current host of popular tv reality show Alt for Norge.
Matthias Mayer is an Austrian retired World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion.
The men's super-G competition at the 2013 World Championships was held on Wednesday, 6 February. It was the first men's race of the championships; 82 athletes from 32 countries competed.
The men's downhill competition of the 2014 Winter Olympics was held at Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort near Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, on 9 February at 11:15 MSK. The race course was longer than average at 3.495 km (2.17 mi), with a vertical drop of 1,075 m (3,527 ft).
The men's super-G competition of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was held at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort, near Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, on Sunday, 16 February.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is a Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer. He competes in four events, with a main focus on super-G and downhill. Kilde hails from Bærum and represents the sports club Lommedalens IL.
From August 19, 2013 to March 23, 2014, the following skiing events took place at various locations around the world.
The following is about the qualification rules and the quota allocation for the alpine skiing events at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The men's super-G competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on 16 February 2018 at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in PyeongChang. Originally set to be held on 15 February 2018, the race was rescheduled to 16 February 2018 after high winds forcing the men's downhill race on 11 February 2018 to be moved to 15 February 2018.
The women's downhill competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in PyeongChang on Wednesday, 21 February.
The men's giant slalom competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on 18 February 2018 at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre at the Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang.
The men's slalom competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on 22 February 2018 at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre at the Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang.
The women's combined competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on 22 February 2018 at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre and the Yongpyong Alpine Centre at the Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang.
The men's combined competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on 13 February 2018 at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre and the Yongpyong Alpine Centre at the Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang.
The Men's downhill competition at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2019 was held on Saturday, 9 February.
The men's overall competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 44 events in 5 disciplines: downhill (DH), Super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), slalom (SL), and Alpine combined (AC). The newly introduced Parallel giant slalom event at Alta Badia, Italy—which was included in the giant slalom season standings—was a relatively short Giant slalom course that pitted the men against one another in a modified bracket-reduction format from a field of thirty-two qualifying skiers, eventually whittled down to just four final-round racers in a "large final" and a "small final".
The men's super-G competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the finals in St. Moritz, Switzerland.