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| Event type

Downhill, Men1

Date15 February 2010 — 10:30
StatusOlympic
LocationWhistler Creekside, Whistler (Dave Murray)
Participants64 from 28 countries
Course SetterHelmuth SchmalzlIFR
DetailsGates: 41
Length: 3105 m
Start Altitude: 1678 m
Vertical Drop: 853 m

Whistler Creekside welcomed the downhillers with warm weather and little snow. The Dave Murray Downhill, a difficult and fast course with 37 corners, several steeps, flats, drop-offs, compressions and long turns, like “Coaches Corner”, was prepared perfectly. Due to poor weather the first training run on 10 February was halted after 42 racers. The second training run one day later on 11 February was the only practice run for all competitors and saw Austrian Michael Walchhofer leading. To save the course the last training run on 12 February was cancelled. Originally the race start was scheduled for Saturday, 13 February at 12 noon, but the race was delayed very early in the morning due to snow in the higher part of the track and due to rain and fog in the lower part. Eventually warm temperatures forced a postponement until Monday, 15 February at 10:30.

The favorites for the race were the current World Cup leader in downhill, winner of two World Cup downhills in the season and fastest in the first training run Didier Cuche, the Austrian Michael Walchhofer (Downhill World Cup winner in 2008-09), and the locals Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Robbie Dixon (placed second in both trainings), and Erik Guay. Cuche broke his right thumb after a fall in the last World Cup race before the Olympics, but recovered right before the Games. The Canadians had the advantage that there were no Pre-Olympics so they had had the possibility to practice exclusively for two years since the course was modified. The last World Cup downhill race on the course, before the slight changes, was held on 25 February 1995. Only one of the downhillers came back 15 years later to compete at the Olympics, Patrik Järbyn who placed 50th in 1995. The next three tries to hold a downhill race were all cancelled due to weather issues (1996-98). Both the gold medalist from 2006 Antoine Dénériaz, as well as the bronze medalist Bruno Kernen, retired in 2007 and the very best downhiller of the last decade, Austrian Hermann Maier, retired just before the 2009-10 season. Also unable to compete was the reigning world champion, Canada’s John Kucera, who broke his right tibia in the World Cup Super G race at Lake Louise in November.

On race day the weather was cloudy and the temperature was about 0°, with one cold night enough to make the course hard, rough, and icy, so the race could be started. The FIS official, assistant referee, and former Olympic competitor Helmuth Schmalzl was the course setter. The first top time was set by the French David Poisson who came up with starting number 3 and a very close and thrilling race began. The first of the top favorites was Bode Miller with bib number 8. He topped the times of Poisson, leading by 0.97 seconds at the second intermediate mark at around 50 seconds of the run after the )Toilet Bowl). At the finish line Miller took the lead by 0.42 seconds. The first of the top group was Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal with bib number 16, who lost time in the first part of the course and after the )Toilet Bowl) was 0.79 seconds behind Miller. But an excellent race in the middle section and final sections enabled Svindal to overtake Miller by only 0.02 seconds. Didier Défago started a few racers later. He equaled the top time of Miller at the first intermediate mark and raced a next to perfect downhill from the beginning to the end. At the last intermediate he was 0.03 seconds in front of Svindal and at the finish Défago took the lead by 0.07 seconds. The next favorite to start was Didier Cuche in position 22. Cuche also topped the times of Défago at the first two intervals, but lost time in the middle section, and would eventually finish sixth, leaving the medals to Défago, Svindal, and Miller in that order. Défago who won at Kitzbühel and Wengen last season, was a surprise winner, but not overly so, although he only qualified for the Swiss team at the last minute, when he bumped out Tobias Grünenfelder and Patrick Küng in the last training run to qualify as the fourth Swiss competitor.

The first five finishers represented five different countries and skied on three different products. Défago won with Rossignol; Svindal, Mario Scheiber, and Guay used Atomic; while Miller trusted Head. Twenty-two years after Pirmin Zurbriggen won in Calgary, Switzerland again won downhill gold in Canada. As a tribute to this win the Swiss racing suits were designed in the same style as in 1988, so Défago won the race in the same red and white outfit that Zurbriggen wore. The first major alpine skiing decision at the 2010 Winter Olympics ended with good luck. A course worker struggled and fell on the left side of the finishing straight. He was not able to leave the piste before the Australian Craig Branch came down with maximum speed. Luckily Branch had chosen to ride on the right side.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCTime
118Didier DéfagoSUI1:54.31Gold
216Aksel Lund SvindalNOR1:54.38Silver
38Bode MillerUSA1:54.40Bronze
415Mario ScheiberAUT1:54.52
59Erik GuayCAN1:54.64
622Didier CucheSUI1:54.67
73David PoissonFRA1:54.82
810Marco BüchelLIE1:54.84
913Klaus KröllAUT1:54.87
1017Michael WalchhoferAUT1:54.88
1120Carlo JankaSUI1:55.02
=1211Hans OlssonSWE1:55.19
=1221Werner HeelITA1:55.19
1433Rok PerkoSLO1:55.26
1525Peter FillITA1:55.29
1626Adrien ThéauxFRA1:55.40
1719Manuel Osborne-ParadisCAN1:55.44
1830Ivica KostelićCRO1:55.49
1924Christof InnerhoferITA1:55.58
206Steve NymanUSA1:55.71
214Andrew WeibrechtUSA1:55.74
222Hans GruggerAUT1:55.81
2314Ambrosi HoffmannSUI1:56.04
2432Stephan KepplerGER1:56.11
2531Jan HudecCAN1:56.19
2634Guillermo FayedFRA1:56.20
2728Johan ClareyFRA1:56.29
2812Andrej JermanSLO1:56.35
291Patrik JärbynSWE1:56.58
3038Ondřej BankCZE1:56.66
=3142Lars MyhreNOR1:56.69
=3136Kjetil JansrudNOR1:56.69
335Natko Zrnčić-DimCRO1:57.02
3439Craig BranchAUS1:57.19
3529Patrick StaudacherITA1:57.21
3635Petr ZáhrobskýCZE1:57.44
3740Andrej KrižajSLO1:57.72
3843Ed DrakeGBR1:57.91
3945Jono BrauerAUS1:58.08
4048Kryštof KrýzlCZE1:58.43
4152Ivan RatkićCRO1:58.58
4237Andreas RomarFIN1:58.71
4350Markus LarssonSWE1:58.82
4441Ferrán TerraESP1:58.85
4551Aleksandr KhoroshilovRUS1:59.21
4655Truls Ove KarlsenNOR1:59.52
4754Kevin EsteveAND1:59.61
4858Roger VidosaAND1:59.65
4944Maui GaymeCHI1:59.76
5046Igor ZakurdayevKAZ1:59.80
5149Paul de la CuestaESP1:59.84
5259Jaroslav BabušiakSVK1:59.99
5356Johnny AlbertsenDEN2:00.12
5463Stepan ZuyevRUS2:00.58
5547Cristian Simari BirknerARG2:01.67
5661Jorge MandrúCHI2:01.72
5753Filip TrejbalCZE2:02.57
5857Roberts RodeLAT2:03.36
5964Andrey DryginTJK2:04.44
DNF23Robbie DixonCAN
DNF7Andrej ŠpornSLO
DNF60Dragoș StaicuROU
DNF62Stefan GeorgievBUL
DQ27Marco SullivanUSA[2:07.76]2