Alpine skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill
| Men's downhill at the XII Olympic Winter Games
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| Venue |
Patscherkofel Tyrol, Austria |
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| Date | 5 February 1976 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 74 from 27 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:45.73 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Franz Klammer |
 Austria
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Bernhard Russi |
 Switzerland
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Herbert Plank |
 Italy
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| Men's Downhill | |
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| Location | Patscherkofel |
| Vertical | 870 m (2,854 ft) |
| Top elevation | 1,950 m (6,398 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,080 m (3,543 ft) |
The Men's Downhill competition of the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held on 5 February at Patscherkofel, on the same course as in 1964.
The defending world champion was David Zwilling of Austria, and Bernhard Russi of Switzerland was the defending Olympic champion. Franz Klammer of Austria was the defending World Cup downhill champion and led the 1976 World Cup. He had also won the pre-Olympic World Cup downhill at Patcherkofel a year earlier in January 1975.
The starting gate was at an elevation of 1,950 m (6,398 ft), and the vertical drop was 870 m (2,854 ft). The course length was 3.020 km (1.877 mi) and Klammer's famous winning run resulted in an average speed of 102.828 km/h (63.89 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 8.2285 m/s (27.00 ft/s). The win elevated him to an international celebrity and he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Egon Zimmermann, also of Austria, took the gold medal a dozen years earlier in the 1964 Olympic downhill. His winning time was 2:18.16, more than a half minute behind Klammer's.
Source:
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Wikipedia