Alpine skiing at the 1964 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

The Men's downhill competition of the 1964 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held at Patscherkofel on Thursday, 30 January.^[1] The defending world champion was Karl Schranz of Austria,^[2] and defending Olympic champion Jean Vuarnet of France had retired from competition.^[3]

Men's downhill at the IX Olympic Winter Games
Alpine skiing
Venue	Patscherkofel Tyrol, Austria
Date	30 January 1964
Competitors	84 from 27 nations
Winning time	2:18.16
Medalists
Egon Zimmermann  Austria Léo Lacroix  France Wolfgang Bartels  United Team of Germany
← 1960 1968 →

Men's Downhill
Location	Patscherkofel
Vertical	867 m (2,844 ft)
Top elevation	1,952 m (6,404 ft)
Base elevation	1,085 m (3,560 ft)

The race course had a number of casualties during training runs, including the death of Ross Milne of Australia,^[4][5] which led to a label of "Course of Fear."^[6] Zimmermann was favored by many to win the downhill and to the delight of the Austrian fans he won by 0.74 seconds.^[6][7]

The starting gate was at an elevation of 1,952 m (6,404 ft), and the vertical drop was 867 m (2,844 ft).^[1] The course length was 3.120 km (1.94 mi) and Zimmerman's winning run resulted in an average speed of 81.297 km/h (50.5 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 6.275 m/s (20.6 ft/s). Following the victory, Zimmerman was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the United States.^[7]

A dozen years later in 1976, Franz Klammer raced on a slightly shorter course (by 100 meters (110 yards)) and shaved more than 32 seconds off of Zimmerman's time to famously win the Olympic downhill.^[8]

Results

Rank	Bib	Name	Country	Time	Difference
	7	Egon Zimmermann	Austria	2:18.16	—
	4	Léo Lacroix	France	2:18.90	+0.74
	11	Wolfgang Bartels	United Team of Germany	2:19.48	+1.32
4	10	Jos Minsch	Switzerland	2:19.54	+1.38
5	3	Luggi Leitner	United Team of Germany	2:19.67	+1.51
6	6	Guy Périllat	France	2:19.79	+1.63
7	15	Gerhard Nenning	Austria	2:19.98	+1.82
8	24	Willy Favre	Switzerland	2:20.23	+2.07
9	14	Willy Bogner	United Team of Germany	2:20.72	+2.56
10	12	Heini Messner	Austria	2:20.74	+2.58
11	13	Karl Schranz	Austria	2:20.98	+2.82
12	5	Fritz Wagnerberger	United Team of Germany	2:21.03	+2.87
13	16	Dumeng Giovanoli	Switzerland	2:21.16	+3.00
14	20	Ni Orsi Jr.	United States	2:21.59	+3.43
15	27	François Bonlieu	France	2:21.71	+3.55
16	1	Billy Kidd	United States	2:21.82	+3.66
17	8	Buddy Werner	United States	2:22.05	+3.89
18	22	Georg Grünenfelder	Switzerland	2:22.69	+4.53
19	2	Ivo Mahlknecht	Italy	2:22.72	+4.56
20	21	Chuck Ferries	United States	2:23.00	+4.84
21	25	Paride Milianti	Italy	2:23.01	+4.85
22	30	Raimo Manninen	Finland	2:23.94	+5.78
23	19	Bruno Alberti	Italy	2:25.30	+7.14
24	63	Jerzy Woyna Orlewicz	Poland	2:25.88	+7.72
25	23	Jean-Guy Brunet	Canada	2:26.59	+8.43
26	49	Ulf Ekstam	Finland	2:27.31	+9.15
27	34	Martino Fill	Italy	2:27.33	+9.17
28	29	Gary Battistella	Canada	2:27.74	+9.58
29	32	Peter Lakota	Yugoslavia	2:27.82	+9.66
30	35	Rod Hebron	Canada	2:27.90	+9.74
31	46	Bengt-Erik Grahn	Sweden	2:29.29	+11.13
32	61	Jon Terje Øverland	Norway	2:29.74	+11.58
33	70	Hajime Tomii	Japan	2:30.02	+11.86
34	48	Peter Duncan	Canada	2:30.06	+11.90
35	40	Luis Viu	Spain	2:30.35	+12.19
36	76	Vasily Melnikov	Soviet Union	2:30.83	+12.67
37	45	Olle Rolén	Sweden	2:31.14	+12.98
38	43	Arild Holm	Norway	2:31.32	+13.16
39	37	Radim Koloušek	Czechoslovakia	2:31.34	+13.18
40	41	Bronisław Trzebunia	Poland	2:32.29	+14.13
41	60	Juan Garriga	Spain	2:32.85	+14.69
42	9	Jean-Claude Killy	France	2:32.96	+14.80
43	51	Javier Masana	Spain	2:33.52	+15.36
44	39	John Rigby	Great Britain	2:34.32	+16.16
45	62	Yoshiharu Fukuhara	Japan	2:34.55	+16.39
46	72	Tsuneo Noto	Japan	2:34.76	+16.60
47	75	Tally Monastyryov	Soviet Union	2:35.27	+17.11
48	55	Hans-Walter Schädler	Liechtenstein	2:35.84	+17.68
49	44	Andrzej Dereziński	Poland	2:35.89	+17.73
50	54	Charles Westenholz	Great Britain	2:36.12	+17.96
51	42	Fric Detiček	Yugoslavia	2:36.54	+18.38
52	38	August Wolfinger	Liechtenstein	2:37.25	+19.09
53	65	Josef Gassner	Liechtenstein	2:37.38	+19.22
54	69	Valery Shein	Soviet Union	2:38.13	+19.97
55	74	Andrej Klinar	Yugoslavia	2:39.79	+21.63
56	77	Charles Palmer-Tomkinson	Great Britain	2:39.97	+21.81
57	67	Yoshihiro Ohira	Japan	2:40.82	+22.66
58	53	Hernán Boher	Chile	2:41.67	+23.51
59	52	Prince Karim Aga Khan	Iran	2:42.59	+24.43
60	81	Petar Angelov	Bulgaria	2:43.32	+25.16
61	73	Simon Brown	Australia	2:44.07	+25.91
62	78	Oto Pustoslemšek	Yugoslavia	2:44.77	+26.61
63	86	Muzaffer Demirhan	Turkey	2:45.63	+27.47
64	83	Pedro Klempa	Argentina	2:47.07	+28.91
65	58	Lotfollah Kia Shemshaki	Iran	2:50.70	+32.54
66	68	Fayzollah Band Ali	Iran	2:52.44	+34.28
67	79	Nazih Geagea	Lebanon	2:55.34	+37.18
68	80	Peter Wenzel	Australia	2:55.58	+37.42
69	71	Ovaness Meguerdonian	Iran	2:57.10	+38.94
70	82	Osman Yüce	Turkey	3:03.66	+45.50
71	84	Zeki Şamiloğlu	Turkey	3:05.71	+47.55
72	87	Abdurrahman Küçük	Turkey	3:09.99	+51.83
73	89	Konstantinos Karydas	Greece	3:10.09	+51.93
74	90	Jean Keyrouz	Lebanon	3:40.44	+82.28
75	85	Michel Rahme	Lebanon	3:55.15	+96.99
76	88	Jorge Abelardo Eiras	Argentina	4:34.51	+136.35
77	64	Juan Holz	Chile	4:51.18	+153.02
-	47	Claudio Wernli	Chile	DQ	-
-	31	Rune Lindström	Sweden	DNF	-
-	33	Jeremy Bujakowski	India	DNF	-
-	50	Lars Olsson	Sweden	DNF	-
-	56	Jorge Rodríguez	Spain	DNF	-
-	57	Jonathan Taylor	Great Britain	DNF	-
-	91	Sami Beyroun	Lebanon	DNF	-

Source:^[1]