Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill
# 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 98 mph (158 km/h) 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 2,412 m (7,913 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 874 m (2,867 ft) and a course length of 3.147 km (1.96 mi). Zurbriggen's winning time of 119.63 seconds yielded an average speed of 94.702 km/h (58.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.306 m/s (24.0 ft/s).

## Results

The race was started at 11:30 local time, (UTC −7). At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was −7 °C (19 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was 0 °C (32 °F).

| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Difference |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | 14 | Pirmin Zurbriggen | Switzerland | 1:59.63 | — |
| | 1 | Peter Müller | Switzerland | 2:00.14 | +0.51 |
| | 15 | Franck Piccard | France | 2:01.24 | +1.61 |
| 4 | 12 | Leonhard Stock | Austria | 2:01.56 | +1.93 |
| 5 | 21 | Gerhard Pfaffenbichler | Austria | 2:02.02 | +2.39 |
| 6 | 9 | Markus Wasmeier | West Germany | 2:02.03 | +2.40 |
| 7 | 10 | Anton Steiner | Austria | 2:02.19 | +2.56 |
| 8 | 26 | Martin Bell | Great Britain | 2:02.49 | +2.86 |
| 9 | 8 | Marc Girardelli | Luxembourg | 2:02.59 | +2.96 |
| 10 | 13 | Danilo Sbardellotto | Italy | 2:02.69 | +3.06 |
| 11 | 28 | Shinya Chiba | Japan | 2:03.16 | +3.53 |
| 12 | 3 | Daniel Mahrer | Switzerland | 2:03.18 | +3.55 |
| 13 | 25 | Hannes Zehentner | West Germany | 2:03.23 | +3.60 |
| 14 | 35 | Mike Carney | Canada | 2:03.25 | +3.62 |
| 15 | 16 | Atle Skårdal | Norway | 2:03.26 | +3.63 |
| 16 | 7 | Rob Boyd | Canada | 2:03.27 | +3.64 |
| 17 | 6 | Franz Heinzer | Switzerland | 2:03.36 | +3.73 |
| 18 | 11 | Felix Belczyk | Canada | 2:03.59 | +3.96 |
| 19 | 37 | Günther Mader | Austria | 2:03.96 | +4.33 |
| 20 | 24 | Hansjörg Tauscher | West Germany | 2:04.31 | +4.68 |
| 21 | 20 | Peter Dürr | West Germany | 2:04.32 | +4.69 |
| 22 | 30 | Steven Lee | Australia | 2:04.46 | +4.83 |
| 23 | 33 | Graham Bell | Great Britain | 2:04.56 | +4.93 |
| 24 | 19 | Jan Einar Thorsen | Norway | 2:04.77 | +5.14 |
| 25 | 2 | Christophe Plé | France | 2:04.78 | +5.15 |
| 26 | 32 | A J Kitt | United States | 2:04.94 | +5.31 |
| 27 | 18 | Lars-Börje Eriksson | Sweden | 2:05.02 | +5.39 |
| 28 | 27 | Jeff Olson | United States | 2:05.09 | +5.46 |
| 29 | 43 | Peter Jurko | Czechoslovakia | 2:05.32 | +5.69 |
| 30 | 34 | Niklas Henning | Sweden | 2:05.52 | +5.89 |
| 31 | 17 | Igor Cigolla | Italy | 2:05.85 | +6.22 |
| 32 | 29 | Doug Lewis | United States | 2:06.25 | +6.62 |
| 33 | 39 | Adrian Bireš | Czechoslovakia | 2:06.34 | +6.71 |
| 34 | 36 | Katsuhito Kumagai | Japan | 2:07.17 | +7.54 |
| 35 | 45 | Finn Christian Jagge | Norway | 2:07.64 | +8.01 |
| 36 | 51 | Silvio Wille | Liechtenstein | 2:07.77 | +8.14 |
| 37 | 37 | Boris Duncan | Great Britain | 2:07.88 | +8.25 |
| 38 | 46 | Gregor Hoop | Liechtenstein | 2:08.50 | +8.87 |
| 39 | 47 | Robert Büchel | Liechtenstein | 2:08.66 | +9.03 |
| 40 | 44 | Niklas Lindqvist | Sweden | 2:09.41 | +9.78 |
| 41 | 40 | Nils Linneberg | Chile | 2:09.83 | +10.20 |
| 42 | 41 | Dieter Linneberg | Chile | 2:11.16 | +11.53 |
| 43 | 49 | Hubertus von Hohenlohe | Mexico | 2:12.58 | +12.95 |
| 44 | 48 | Jorge Birkner | Argentina | 2:14.20 | +14.57 |
| 45 | 50 | Javier Rivara | Argentina | 2:16.79 | +17.16 |
| - | 42 | Peter Forras | Australia | DNF | - |
| - | 31 | Bill Hudson | United States | DNF | - |
| - | 4 | Luc Alphand | France | DNF | - |
| - | 23 | Michael Mair | Italy | DNF | - |
| - | 22 | Philippe Verneret | France | DQ | - |
| - | 5 | Brian Stemmle | Canada | DQ | - |

    Source:
