The Men's Downhill competition of the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held at Patscherkofel on Thursday, 5 February, on the same course as in 1964.

The defending world champion, David Zwilling of Austria, had recently retired; Bernhard Russi of Switzerland was the defending Olympic champion. Franz Klammer of Austria was the defending World Cup downhill champion and led the current season; he had also won the pre-Olympic World Cup downhill at Patcherkofel a year earlier in January 1975.

Klammer won the gold medal, Russi took the silver, and Herbert Plank of Italy was the bronze medalist.

The starting gate was at an elevation of above sea level, with a vertical drop of . The course length was for an average gradient of 28.8% (16.1 degrees). Klammer's famous winning run resulted in an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of , significantly faster than previous Olympic downhills. At age 22, the win elevated him to an international celebrity and he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Egon Zimmermann, also of Austria, took the gold medal a dozen years earlier in the 1964 Olympic downhill; at 2:18.16, his winning time was more than a half-minute behind Klammer's.

Through 2026, no Olympic men's downhill champion has repeated; Russi remains the sole defender to medal.

Results Rank Bib Name Country Time Difference 15 Franz Klammer 1:45.73 — 3 Bernhard Russi 1:46.06 +0.33 8 Herbert Plank 1:46.59 +0.86 4 11 Philippe Roux 1:46.69 +0.96 5 10 Ken Read 1:46.83 +1.10 6 19 Andy Mill 1:47.06 +1.33 7 29 Walter Tresch 1:47.29 +1.56 8 13 Dave Irwin 1:47.41 +1.68 9 6 Sepp Walcher 1:47.45 +1.72 10 5 Jim Hunter 1:47.52 +1.79 11 30 Greg Jones 1:47.84 +2.11 12 1 René Berthod 1:47.89 +2.16 13 22 Pete Patterson 1:47.94 +2.21 14 21 Rolando Thoeni 1:48.13 +2.40 15 20 Peter Fischer 1:48.18 +2.45 16 24 Patrice Pellat-Finet 1:48.34 +2.61 17 25 Sepp Ferstl 1:48.41 +2.68 18 28 Dave Murray 1:48.43 +2.70 19 4 Klaus Eberhard 1:48.45 +2.72 20 42 Sumihiro Tomii 1:48.88 +3.15 21 16 Willi Frommelt 1:48.92 +3.1922 31 David Griff 1:49.02 +3.29 2 Michael Veith 24 27 Karl Anderson 1:49.08 +3.35 25 9 Erik Håker 1:49.19 +3.46 26 14 Gustavo Thoeni 1:49.25 +3.52 27 18 Mikio Katagiri 1:50.03 +4.30 28 38 Andreas Wenzel 1:50.08 +4.35 29 46 Wolfgang Junginger 1:50.48 +4.75 30 37 Alan Stewart 1:50.56 +4.83 31 44 Luis Rosenkjer 1:50.87 +5.14 32 34 Stuart Fitzsimmons 1:50.89 +5.16 33 45 Bohumír Zeman 1:51.27 +5.54 34 35 Kim Clifford 1:51.64 +5.91 35 17 Francisco Fernández Ochoa 1:51.91 +6.18 36 36 Juan Manuel Fernández Ochoa 1:52.40 +6.6737 43 Andrej Koželj 1:52.75 +7.02 33 Peter Fuchs 39 39 Juan Angel Olivieri 1:52.76 +7.03 40 55 Miloslav Sochor 1:53.48 +7.75 41 32 Jaime Ros 1:53.50 +7.77 42 59 Jorge García 1:53.55 +7.82 43 58 Didier Xhaet 1:53.56 +7.83 44 49 Vladimir Andreyev 1:53.61 +7.88 45 41 Robert Blanchaer 1:54.30 +8.57 46 40 Ajdin Pašović 1:54.57 +8.84 47 54 Carlos Alberto Martínez 1:54.62 +8.89 48 56 Ivan Penev 1:55.56 +9.83 49 74 Dan Cristea 1:55.63 +9.90 50 70 Georgi Kochov 1:55.82 +10.09 51 47 José Luis Koifman 1:56.30 +10.57 52 50 Roman Dereziński 1:56.33 +10.60 53 67 Stuart Blakely 1:57.91 +12.18 54 52 Antoine Crespo 1:58.72 +12.99 55 53 Gorban Ali Kalhor 1:59.15 +13.42 56 62 Mohammad Hadj Kia Shemshaki 1:59.44 +13.71 57 68 Ion Cavași 2:00.19 +14.46 58 61 Akbar Kalili 2:00.32 +14.59 59 75 Rafael Cañas 2:00.39 +14.66 60 69 Brett Kendall 2:00.57 +14.84 61 63 Fernando Reutter 2:01.19 +15.46 62 64 Carlos Font 2:01.75 +16.02 63 65 Ahmet Kıbıl 2:03.74 +18.01 64 73 Mümtaz Demirhan 2:06.01 +20.28 65 71 Thomas Karadimas 2:14.69 +28.96 66 66 Spyros Theodorou 2:17.08 +31.35 - 60 Robin Armstrong DNF - - 57 Mohammad Kalhor DNF - - 51 Xavier Areny DNF - - 48 Adrián Roncallo DNF - - 26 Konrad Bartelski DNF - - 23 Rob McIntyre DNF - - 12 Anton Steiner DNF - - 7 Erwin Stricker DNF - - 72 Murat Tosun DNS -

References

External links FIS results