Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

The Men's downhill competition of the Calgary 1988 Olympics was held at the newly-developed Nakiska on Mount Allan on Monday, February 15.

The reigning world champion was Peter Müller, while all-around Pirmin Zurbriggen was the defending World Cup downhill champion, led the current season, and was a medal threat in all five alpine events.  Defending Olympic champion Bill Johnson did not make the U.S. Olympic team; this was the third of four consecutive Olympics without the defending champion in the field.

The race was postponed a day due to winds that gusted to  at the exposed summit; Zurbriggen took the gold and Müller the silver, a half-second behind. More than a second behind the runner-up was bronze medalist Franck Piccard. Leonhard Stock, the 1980 champion, was fourth, but nearly two seconds behind Zurbriggen. 

The course started at an elevation of  above sea level with a vertical drop of  and a course length of . Zurbriggen's winning time of 119.63 seconds yielded an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of .

Results
The race was started at 11:30 local time, (UTC  −7). At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was , and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was .

References

External links
FIS results

Men's downhill
Winter Olympics