Alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill
| Men's downhill at the XIX Olympic Winter Games | ||||||||||
 Pictogram for alpine skiing | ||||||||||
| Venue | Snowbasin | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | February 10 | |||||||||
| Competitors | 55 from 22 nations | |||||||||
| Winning time | 1:39.13 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combined | men | women | ||
| Downhill | men | women | ||
| Giant slalom | men | women | ||
| Slalom | men | women | ||
| Super-G | men | women | ||
The marquee event of alpine skiing was held on February 10 at the Snowbasin ski area, east of Ogden under clear skies.
Designed by 1972 gold medalist Bernhard Russi, the steep "Grizzly Downhill" course was just 1.77 miles (2.86 km) in length, and began at a lofty 9288 feet (2831 m) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 2897 feet (883 m). The average gradient on the Grizzly Downhill was 30.87% (17.98°), exceeding the classic layouts of Kitzbühel (860 m vertical / 3312 m length = 25.97%, 15.05°) and Wengen (1025 m vertical / 4455 m length = 23.01%, 13.30°).
The top five finishers completed the course in less than 100 seconds, making it the quickest descending Olympic downhill, at an average vertical descent of more than 29 ft/s (8.8 m/s). The average speed of the medalists for the entire course exceeded 64 mph (103 km/h), rating it among the fastest courses in international competition.
Pre-race favorite Stephan Eberharter of Austria took the bronze medal, bested by compatriot Fritz Strobl and the all-rounder Lasse Kjus of Norway.
Results
The results of the men's downhill event in Alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
| Rank | Name | Country | Time | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Fritz Strobl |  Austria |
1:39.13 | |
 |
Lasse Kjus |  Norway |
1:39.35 | +0.22 |
 |
Stephan Eberharter | Austria |
1:39.41 | +0.28 |
| 4 | Kjetil André Aamodt | Norway |
1:39.78 | +0.65 |
| 5 | Claude Crétier |  France |
1:39.96 | +0.83 |
| 6 | Christian Greber | Austria |
1:40.00 | +0.87 |
| 7 | Fredrik Nyberg |  Sweden |
1:40.30 | +1.17 |
| 8 | Ambrosi Hoffmann |  Switzerland |
1:40.31 | +1.18 |
| 9 | Marco Sullivan |  United States |
1:40.37 | +1.24 |
| 10 | Sébastien Fournier-Bidoz | France |
1:40.39 | +1.26 |
| 11 | Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin | France |
1:40.58 | +1.45 |
| 12 | Bjarne Solbakken | Norway |
1:40.74 | +1.61 |
| 12 | Antoine Dénériaz | France |
1:40.74 | +1.61 |
| 14 | Didier Cuche | Switzerland |
1:40.76 | +1.63 |
| 15 | Franco Cavegn | Switzerland |
1:40.81 | +1.68 |
| 16 | Daron Rahlves | United States |
1:40.84 | +1.71 |
| 17 | Roland Fischnaller |  Italy |
1:40.85 | +1.72 |
| 18 | Patrik Järbyn | Sweden |
1:41.05 | +1.92 |
| 19 | Alessandro Fattori | Italy |
1:41.24 | +2.11 |
| 20 | Christoph Gruber | Austria |
1:41.25 | +2.12 |
| 21 | Didier Défago | Switzerland |
1:41.27 | +2.14 |
| 22 | Kurt Sulzenbacher | Italy |
1:41.56 | +2.43 |
| 23 | Peter Pen |  Slovenia |
1:41.66 | +2.53 |
| 24 | Ed Podivinsky |  Canada |
1:41.69 | +2.56 |
| 25 | Kenneth Sivertsen | Norway |
1:41.70 | +2.57 |
| 26 | Jürgen Hasler |  Liechtenstein |
1:41.76 | +2.63 |
| 27 | Jakub Fiala | United States |
1:41.84 | +2.71 |
| 28 | Andrej Jerman | Slovenia |
1:41.85 | +2.72 |
| 29 | Marco Büchel | Liechtenstein |
1:41.86 | +2.73 |
| 29 | Scott Macartney | United States |
1:41.86 | +2.73 |
| 31 | Gregor Sparovec | Slovenia |
1:41.88 | +2.75 |
| 32 | Darin McBeath | Canada |
1:42.15 | +3.02 |
| 33 | Jernej Koblar | Slovenia |
1:42.41 | +3.18 |
| 34 | Max Rauffer |  Germany |
1:42.52 | +3.39 |
| 35 | Kristian Ghedina | Italy |
1:42.54 | +3.41 |
| 36 | Maxim Kedrin |  Russia |
1:43.04 | +3.91 |
| 37 | AJ Bear |  Australia |
1:43.19 | +4.06 |
| 38 | Dave Anderson | Canada |
1:43.20 | +4.07 |
| 39 | Ondřej Bank |  Czech Republic |
1:43.33 | +4.20 |
| 40 | Borek Zakouril | Czech Republic |
1:43.63 | +4.50 |
| 41 | Andrey Filichkin | Russia |
1:43.73 | +4.60 |
| 42 | Yasuyuki Takishita |  Japan |
1:43.75 | +4.62 |
| 43 | Pavel Chestakov | Russia |
1:44.35 | +5.22 |
| 44 | Sergey Komarov | Russia |
1:45.25 | +6.12 |
| 45 | Craig Branch | Australia |
1:45.34 | +6.21 |
| 46 | Jan Holicky | Czech Republic |
1:45.59 | +6.36 |
| 47 | Ivan Heimschild |  Slovakia |
1:46.36 | +7.23 |
| 48 | Maui Gayme |  Chile |
1:47.63 | +8.50 |
| 49 | Nikolay Skriabin |  Ukraine |
1:47.65 | +8.52 |
| 50 | Mikael Gayme | Chile |
1:48.37 | +9.24 |
| 51 | Alexander Heath |  South Africa |
1:48.84 | +9.71 |
| 52 | Nicolas Arsel |  Argentina |
1:49.75 | +10.62 |
| 53 | Paul Schwarzacher-Joyce |  Ireland |
1:54.42 | +15.29 |
| Ross Green |  Great Britain |
DNS | ||
| Cristian Javier Simari Birkner | Argentina |
DSQ |