The Men's Downhill competition of the Sapporo 1972 Olympics was held at Mount Eniwa on Monday, February 7.
The defending world champion was Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, who was also the defending World Cup downhill champion, and Austria's Karl Schranz led the current season. Schranz was classified as a professional and banned from the Olympics. The defending Olympic champion, Jean Claude Killy of France, had retired from World Cup and international competition in the spring of 1968.
Russi won the gold medal, teammate Roland Collombin took the silver, and Heini Messner of Austria won the bronze.
The starting gate was at an elevation of above sea level, with a vertical drop of . The course length was and Russi's winning run of 111.43 seconds resulted in an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of .
Results The race started at 13:30 JST (UTC+9) under clear skies, with an air temperature of . Rank Bib Name Country Time Difference 4 Bernhard Russi 1:51.43 — 11 Roland Collombin 1:52.07 +0.64 5 Heinrich Messner 1:52.40 +0.97 4 1 Andreas Sprecher 1:53.11 +1.68 5 26 Erik Håker 1:53.16 +1.73 6 13 Walter Tresch 1:53.19 +1.76 7 8 Karl Cordin 1:53.32 +1.89 8 18 Bob Cochran 1:53.39 +1.96 9 22 Josef Loidl 1:53.71 +2.28 10 7 Marcello Varallo 1:53.85 +2.42 11 17 Giuliano Besson 1:54.15 +2.72 11 10 Stefano Anzi 1:54.15 +2.72 13 2 Gustav Thöni 1:54.37 +2.94 14 15 Mike Lafferty 1:54.38 +2.95 15 20 Roger Rossat-Mignod 1:54.72 +3.29 16 3 Bernard Orcel 1:54.81 +3.38 17 14 David Currier 1:54.96 +3.53 18 25 Hans-Jörg Schlager 1:55.05 +3.62 19 27 Henri Duvillard 1:55.13 +3.70 20 30 Jim Hunter 1:55.16 +3.73 21 9 Bernard Charvin 1:55.33 +3.90 22 24 Sumihiro Tomii 1:55.34 +3.91 23 6 Malcolm Milne 1:55.48 +4.05 24 12 Franz Vogler 1:55.50 +4.07 25 19 Hank Kashiwa 1:55.60 +4.17 26 23 Herbert Marxer 1:55.90 +4.47 27 29 Alfred Hagn 1:56.04 +4.61 28 42 Manni Thofte 1:56.66 +5.23 29 21 Willi Lesch 1:56.67 +5.24 30 44 Willi Frommelt 1:57.58 +6.15 31 31 Reinhard Tritscher 1:58.05 +6.62 32 28 Reto Barrington 1:58.29 +6.86 33 48 Royston Varley 1:58.53 +7.10 34 45 Olle Rolén 1:59.28 +7.85 35 43 Masahiko Otsue 1:59.55 +8.12 36 47 Peik Christensen 1:59.71 +8.28 37 37 Alex Mapelli-Mozzi 2:00.28 +8.85 38 49 Derek Robbins 2:00.38 +8.95 39 53 Dan Cristea 2:01.26 +9.83 40 36 Ivan Penev 2:02.16 +10.73 41 40 Chris Womersley 2:02.24 +10.81 42 50 Robert Blanchaer 2:02.45 +11.02 43 39 Konrad Bartelski 2:02.71 +11.28 44 46 Steven Clifford 2:02.90 +11.47 45 41 Resmi Resmiev 2:03.01 +11.58 46 62 Sergey Grishchenko 2:03.19 +11.76 47 54 Carlos Perner 2:03.69 +12.26 48 55 Virgil Brenci 2:04.33 +12.90 49 38 Ross Ewington 2:04.75 +13.32 50 56 Iain Finlayson 2:06.50 +15.07 51 58 Jorge-Emilio Lazzarini 2:08.29 +16.86 52 60 Ali Saveh 2:11.29 +19.86 53 61 Lotfollah Kia Shemshaki 2:16.14 +24.71 54 57 Fayzollah Band Ali 2:18.19 +26.76 55 59 Gorban Ali Kalhor 2:20.98 +29.55
References
External links YouTube.com - 1972 Winter Olympics - Men's Downhill - Gold and Bronze medalists' runs - from Japanese television FIS results