The Men's downhill competition of the 1964 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held at Patscherkofel on Thursday, 30 January. The defending world champion was Karl Schranz of Austria, and defending Olympic champion Jean Vuarnet of France had retired from competition.
The race course had a number of casualties during training runs, including the death of Ross Milne of Australia, which led to a label of "Course of Fear." Zimmermann was favored by many to win the downhill and to the delight of the Austrian fans he won by 0.74 seconds.
The starting gate was at an elevation of , and the vertical drop was . The course length was and Zimmerman's winning run resulted in an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of . Following the victory, Zimmerman was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the United States.
A dozen years later in 1976, Franz Klammer raced on a slightly shorter course (by ) and shaved off more than a half-minute of Zimmerman's time to famously win the Olympic downhill.
Results Rank Bib Name Country Time Difference 7 Egon Zimmermann 2:18.16 — 4 Léo Lacroix 2:18.90 +0.74 11 Wolfgang Bartels 2:19.48 +1.32 4 10 Jos Minsch 2:19.54 +1.38 5 3 Luggi Leitner 2:19.67 +1.51 6 6 Guy Périllat 2:19.79 +1.63 7 15 Gerhard Nenning 2:19.98 +1.82 8 24 Willy Favre 2:20.23 +2.07 9 14 Willy Bogner 2:20.72 +2.56 10 12 Heini Messner 2:20.74 +2.58 11 13 Karl Schranz 2:20.98 +2.82 12 5 Fritz Wagnerberger 2:21.03 +2.87 13 16 Dumeng Giovanoli 2:21.16 +3.00 14 20 Ni Orsi Jr. 2:21.59 +3.43 15 27 François Bonlieu 2:21.71 +3.55 16 1 Billy Kidd 2:21.82 +3.66 17 8 Buddy Werner 2:22.05 +3.89 18 22 Georges Grünenfelder 2:22.69 +4.53 19 2 Ivo Mahlknecht 2:22.72 +4.56 20 21 Chuck Ferries 2:23.00 +4.84 21 25 Paride Milianti 2:23.01 +4.85 22 30 Raimo Manninen 2:23.94 +5.78 23 19 Bruno Alberti 2:25.30 +7.14 24 63 Jerzy Woyna Orlewicz 2:25.88 +7.72 25 23 Jean-Guy Brunet 2:26.59 +8.43 26 49 Ulf Ekstam 2:27.31 +9.15 27 34 Martino Fill 2:27.33 +9.17 28 29 Gary Battistella 2:27.74 +9.58 29 32 Peter Lakota 2:27.82 +9.66 30 35 Rod Hebron 2:27.90 +9.74 31 46 Bengt-Erik Grahn 2:29.29 +11.13 32 61 Jon Terje Øverland 2:29.74 +11.58 33 70 Hajime Tomii 2:30.02 +11.86 34 48 Peter Duncan 2:30.06 +11.90 35 40 Luis Viu 2:30.35 +12.19 36 76 Vasily Melnikov 2:30.83 +12.67 37 45 Olle Rolén 2:31.14 +12.98 38 43 Arild Holm 2:31.32 +13.16 39 37 Radim Koloušek 2:31.34 +13.18 40 41 Bronisław Trzebunia 2:32.29 +14.13 41 60 Juan Garriga 2:32.85 +14.69 42 9 Jean-Claude Killy 2:32.96 +14.80 43 51 Javier Masana 2:33.52 +15.36 44 39 John Rigby 2:34.32 +16.16 45 62 Yoshiharu Fukuhara 2:34.55 +16.39 46 72 Tsuneo Noto 2:34.76 +16.60 47 75 Tally Monastyryov 2:35.27 +17.11 48 55 Hans-Walter Schädler 2:35.84 +17.68 49 44 Andrzej Dereziński 2:35.89 +17.73 50 54 Charles Westenholz 2:36.12 +17.96 51 42 Fric Detiček 2:36.54 +18.38 52 38 August Wolfinger 2:37.25 +19.09 53 65 Josef Gassner 2:37.38 +19.22 54 69 Valery Shein 2:38.13 +19.97 55 74 Andrej Klinar 2:39.79 +21.63 56 77 Charles Palmer-Tomkinson 2:39.97 +21.81 57 67 Yoshihiro Ohira 2:40.82 +22.66 58 53 Hernán Boher 2:41.67 +23.51 59 52 Prince Karim Aga Khan 2:42.59 +24.43 60 81 Petar Angelov 2:43.32 +25.16 61 73 Simon Brown 2:44.07 +25.91 62 78 Oto Pustoslemšek 2:44.77 +26.61 63 86 Muzaffer Demirhan 2:45.63 +27.47 64 83 Pedro Klempa 2:47.07 +28.91 65 58 Lotfollah Kia Shemshaki 2:50.70 +32.54 66 68 Fayzollah Band Ali 2:52.44 +34.28 67 79 Nazih Geagea 2:55.34 +37.18 68 80 Peter Wenzel 2:55.58 +37.42 69 71 Ovaness Meguerdonian 2:57.10 +38.94 70 82 Osman Yüce 3:03.66 +45.50 71 84 Zeki Şamiloğlu 3:05.71 +47.55 72 87 Abdurrahman Küçük 3:09.99 +51.83 73 89 Konstantinos Karydas 3:10.09 +51.93 74 90 Jean Keyrouz 3:40.44 +82.28 75 85 Michel Rahme 3:55.15 +96.99 76 88 Jorge Abelardo Eiras 4:34.51 +136.35 77 64 Juan Holz 4:51.18 +153.02 - 47 Claudio Wernli DQ - - 31 Rune Lindström DNF - - 33 Jeremy Bujakowski DNF - - 50 Lars Olsson DNF - - 56 Jorge Rodríguez DNF - - 57 Jonathan Taylor DNF - - 91 Sami Beyroun DNF -
References
External links FIS results