Downhill, Women

The best skier in the world in the past two years had been Austrian Annemarie Pröll, who was World Cup champion in 1971-72 in the overall, downhill, and giant slalom. The early leader in Sapporo was France’s Isabelle Mir, silver medalist in the 1970 World Championship downhill. She was then bested by unknown American Susan Corrock, whose eventual third-place finish would be her only podium finish ever in a major international. Three skiers later, unheralded Swiss skier Marie-Theres Nadig moved into first, a full second ahead of Corrock. But Pröll was still to come, the last off of the seeded skiers. Although she skied well, it was only good enough for a silver medal, giving the gold to Nadig in a major upset. The pouting Pröll refused to attend the post-race press conference, but would return to lead the World Cup downhill and overall in 1973-75. She retired before the 1976 Winter Olympics, but then returned and in 1980, won the gold medal in the downhill at Lake Placid.