Alpine skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill
# Alpine skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

The Men's Downhill competition of the Nagano 1998 Olympics was held at Hakuba on Friday, February 13. Originally scheduled for Sunday, the race was postponed several times due to heavy snow, followed by rain and gusty winds.

The reigning world champion was Bruno Kernen of Switzerland, while France's Luc Alphand was the reigning World Cup downhill champion, but had since retired from competition. The defending Olympic champion was Tommy Moe of the United States.

France's Jean-Luc Crétier won the gold medal, Lasse Kjus of Norway took the silver, and the bronze medalist was Hannes Trinkl of Austria; Moe was twelfth and Kernan did not finish. Nine of the first twenty failed to finish, including a crash by favorite Hermann Maier of Austria, which he walked away from. Luca Cattaneo's injury caused a half-hour delay underneath the clear skies, as the temperature at the finish approached 15 °C (59 °F). Of the eight with bib numbers 13 through 20, only Moe completed the race; in total, fifteen of the 43 racers did not finish.

It was the sole victory of Crétier's career; he had five World cup podiums, three of which were in the two months preceding the Olympics, at the notable venues of Beaver Creek, Wengen, and Kitzbühel. Entering the Olympics, he was fourth in the season's World Cup downhill standings.

The course started at an elevation of 1,765 m (5,791 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 925 m (3,035 ft) and a course length of 3.289 km (2.04 mi). Crétier's winning time was 110.11 seconds, yielding an average course speed of 107.532 km/h (66.8 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 8.401 m/s (27.6 ft/s).

## Results

The race was started at 11:00 local time, (UTC +9). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was 2.3 °C (36 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish at 12.3 °C (54 °F).

| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Behind |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | 3 | Jean-Luc Crétier | France | 1:50.11 | — |
| | 10 | Lasse Kjus | Norway | 1:50.51 | +0.40 |
| | 8 | Hannes Trinkl | Austria | 1:50.63 | +0.52 |
| 4 | 24 | Jürg Grünenfelder | Switzerland | 1:50.64 | +0.53 |
| 5 | 25 | Ed Podivinsky | Canada | 1:50.71 | +0.60 |
| 6 | 7 | Kristian Ghedina | Italy | 1:50.76 | +0.65 |
| 7 | 5 | Andreas Schifferer | Austria | 1:50.77 | +0.66 |
| 8 | 9 | Didier Cuche | Switzerland | 1:50.91 | +0.80 |
| 9 | 26 | Kyle Rasmussen | United States | 1:51.09 | +0.98 |
| 10 | 23 | Patrik Järbyn | Sweden | 1:51.22 | +1.11 |
| 11 | 2 | Fritz Strobl | Austria | 1:51.34 | +1.23 |
| 12 | 17 | Tommy Moe | United States | 1:51.43 | +1.32 |
| 13 | 11 | Kjetil André Aamodt | Norway | 1:51.72 | +1.61 |
| 14 | 1 | Franco Cavegn | Switzerland | 1:51.74 | +1.63 |
| 15 | 30 | Jason Rosener | United States | 1:52.33 | +2.22 |
| 16 | 12 | Werner Perathoner | Italy | 1:52.36 | +2.25 |
| 17 | 21 | Tsuyoshi Tomii | Japan | 1:52.62 | +2.51 |
| 18 | 33 | Andrey Filichkin | Russia | 1:52.65 | +2.54 |
| 19 | 22 | Kevin Wert | Canada | 1:52.67 | +2.56 |
| 20 | 31 | Jernej Koblar | Slovenia | 1:52.79 | +2.68 |
| 21 | 36 | Enis Bećirbegović | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1:53.47 | +3.36 |
| 22 | 43 | Andrzej Bachleda-Curuś | Poland | 1:53.62 | +3.51 |
| 23 | 35 | Graham Bell | Great Britain | 1:53.93 | +3.82 |
| 24 | 38 | Vasily Bezsmelnitsyn | Russia | 1:54.27 | +4.16 |
| 25 | 37 | Linas Vaitkus | Lithuania | 1:56.22 | +6.11 |
| 26 | 39 | Nils Linneberg | Chile | 1:56.59 | +6.48 |
| 27 | 42 | Patrick-Paul Schwarzacher-Joyce | Ireland | 1:58.71 | +8.60 |
| 28 | 41 | Rainer Grob | Chile | 1:58.75 | +8.64 |
| | 4 | Hermann Maier | Austria | DNF | |
| | 6 | Nicolas Burtin | France | DNF | |
| | 13 | Bruno Kernen | Switzerland | DNF | |
| | 14 | Luca Cattaneo | Italy | DNF | |
| | 15 | Peter Runggaldier | Italy | DNF | |
| | 16 | Luke Sauder | Canada | DNF | |
| | 18 | Aleš Brezavšček | Slovenia | DNF | |
| | 19 | A J Kitt | United States | DNF | |
| | 20 | Brian Stemmle | Canada | DNF | |
| | 27 | Adrien Duvillard | France | DNF | |
| | 28 | Peter Pen | Slovenia | DNF | |
| | 29 | Jürgen Hasler | Liechtenstein | DNF | |
| | 32 | Andrew Freshwater | Great Britain | DNF | |
| | 34 | Yasuyuki Takishita | Japan | DNF | |
| | 40 | Thomás Grob | Chile | DNF | |

    Source
