Downhill, Women1

As with the men’s downhill, the women’s downhill was delayed by weather, rain and fog causing the start to be moved from 14 February to 16 February. Katja Seizinger was the defending champion and was probably still the best female speed skiier in the world. Since Lillehammer she had won the 1996 World Cup in both overall and Super G and she was leading the 1997-98 downhill World Cup. But she had competition. Two Americans, Picabo Street in 1996 and Hilary Lindh in 1997, had won the last two World Championship downhills. Street was World Cup champion in 1995 and 1996, and Austrian Renate Götschl won the 1997 World Cup. But Street had been badly injured in December 1996, breaking her femur and tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a fall, and had only been skiing competitively for two months at the time of Nagano. Also expected to challenge was Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg, who was better known for her technical skills, but was a good all-rounder and the 1997 overall World Cup champion. Of the challengers, Seizinger was first down the mountain, and her time of 1:28.89 would hold up, making her the first skier to win two Olympic downhill golds. Wiberg placed second while the bronze went to France’s Florence Masnada. Street finished sixth while Götschl would not finish.