Alpine skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

The Men's Downhill competition of the Sapporo 1972 Olympics was held at Mount Eniwa on Monday, February 7.^[1][2]

Men's downhill at the XI Olympic Winter Games
Alpine skiing
Venue	Mount Eniwa Hokkaido, Japan
Date	February 7, 1972
Competitors	55 from 20 nations
Winning time	1:51.43
Medalists
Bernhard Russi  Switzerland Roland Collombin  Switzerland Heinrich Messner  Austria
← 1968 1976 →

Men's Downhill
Location	Mount Eniwa
Vertical	772 m (2,533 ft)
Top elevation	1,126 m (3,694 ft)
Base elevation	354 m (1,161 ft)
Longest run	2.640 km (1.64 mi)

Sapporo

Teine

Mount Eniwa

Locations on Hokkaido

The defending world champion was Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, who was also the defending World Cup downhill champion, and Austria's Karl Schranz led the current season.^[3][4] Schranz was classified as a professional and banned from the Olympics.^[5][6]

Russi won the gold medal, teammate Roland Collombin took the silver, and Heini Messner of Austria won the bronze.^[7][8]

The starting gate was at an elevation of 1,126 m (3,694 ft) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 772 m (2,533 ft).^[1] The course length was 2.640 km (1.64 mi) and Russi's winning run of 111.43 seconds resulted in an average speed of 85.291 km/h (53.0 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 6.928 m/s (22.7 ft/s).

Results

The race started at 13:30 JST (UTC+9) under clear skies, with an air temperature of −7 °C (19 °F).

Rank	Bib	Name	Country	Time	Difference
	4	Bernhard Russi	Switzerland	1:51.43	—
	11	Roland Collombin	Switzerland	1:52.07	+0.64
	5	Heinrich Messner	Austria	1:52.40	+0.97
4	1	Andreas Sprecher	Switzerland	1:53.11	+1.68
5	26	Erik Håker	Norway	1:53.16	+1.73
6	13	Walter Tresch	Switzerland	1:53.19	+1.76
7	8	Karl Cordin	Austria	1:53.32	+1.89
8	18	Bob Cochran	United States	1:53.39	+1.96
9	22	Josef Loidl	Austria	1:53.71	+2.28
10	7	Marcello Varallo	Italy	1:53.85	+2.42
11	17	Giuliano Besson	Italy	1:54.15	+2.72
11	10	Stefano Anzi	Italy	1:54.15	+2.72
13	2	Gustav Thöni	Italy	1:54.37	+2.94
14	15	Mike Lafferty	United States	1:54.38	+2.95
15	20	Roger Rossat-Mignod	France	1:54.72	+3.29
16	3	Bernard Orcel	France	1:54.81	+3.38
17	14	David Currier	United States	1:54.96	+3.53
18	25	Hans-Jörg Schlager	West Germany	1:55.05	+3.62
19	27	Henri Duvillard	France	1:55.13	+3.70
20	30	Jim Hunter	Canada	1:55.16	+3.73
21	9	Bernard Charvin	France	1:55.33	+3.90
22	24	Sumihiro Tomii	Japan	1:55.34	+3.91
23	6	Malcolm Milne	Australia	1:55.48	+4.05
24	12	Franz Vogler	West Germany	1:55.50	+4.07
25	19	Hank Kashiwa	United States	1:55.60	+4.17
26	23	Herbert Marxer	Liechtenstein	1:55.90	+4.47
27	29	Alfred Hagn	West Germany	1:56.04	+4.61
28	42	Manni Thofte	Sweden	1:56.66	+5.23
29	21	Willi Lesch	West Germany	1:56.67	+5.24
30	44	Willi Frommelt	Liechtenstein	1:57.58	+6.15
31	31	Reinhard Tritscher	Austria	1:58.05	+6.62
32	28	Reto Barrington	Canada	1:58.29	+6.86
33	48	Royston Varley	Great Britain	1:58.53	+7.10
34	45	Olle Rolén	Sweden	1:59.28	+7.85
35	43	Masahiko Otsue	Japan	1:59.55	+8.12
36	47	Peik Christensen	Norway	1:59.71	+8.28
37	37	Alex Mapelli-Mozzi	Great Britain	2:00.28	+8.85
38	49	Derek Robbins	Canada	2:00.38	+8.95
39	53	Dan Cristea	Romania	2:01.26	+9.83
40	36	Ivan Penev	Bulgaria	2:02.16	+10.73
41	40	Chris Womersley	New Zealand	2:02.24	+10.81
42	50	Robert Blanchaer	Belgium	2:02.45	+11.02
43	39	Konrad Bartelski	Great Britain	2:02.71	+11.28
44	46	Steven Clifford	Australia	2:02.90	+11.47
45	41	Resmi Resmiev	Bulgaria	2:03.01	+11.58
46	62	Sergey Grishchenko	Soviet Union	2:03.19	+11.76
47	54	Carlos Perner	Argentina	2:03.69	+12.26
48	55	Virgil Brenci	Romania	2:04.33	+12.90
49	38	Ross Ewington	New Zealand	2:04.75	+13.32
50	56	Iain Finlayson	Great Britain	2:06.50	+15.07
51	58	Jorge-Emilio Lazzarini	Argentina	2:08.29	+16.86
52	60	Ali Saveh	Iran	2:11.29	+19.86
53	61	Lotfollah Kia Shemshaki	Iran	2:16.14	+24.71
54	57	Fayzollah Band Ali	Iran	2:18.19	+26.76
55	59	Gorban Ali Kalhor	Iran	2:20.98	+29.55

Source:^[1]