Downhill, Women

The favorite was likely France’s Marielle Goitschel, gold medalist in 1964 in the giant slalom, and winner of the inaugural World Cup downhill title in 1967. She had also placed second at the 1966 World Championship downhill behind Austria’s Erika Schinegger. Schinegger would have been a favorite but failed the Barr body test, which was used for gender verification, prior to the Grenoble Olympics. Schinegger had been raised female, but examination revealed that she had internal male sex organs. She would later undergo corrective sex transformation and changed her name to Eric, and in 1988 gave the 1966 World Championship gold medal to Goitschel.

Goitschel went off in 11th but skied poorly for her, and was only third after her run, eventually finishing eighth. The last of the seeded skiers was Austrian Olga Pall who moved ahead of France’s Isabelle Mir to win the gold medal. Defending gold medalist Christl Haas took bronze.