The Women's downhill competition of the Squaw Valley 1960 Olympics was held at Squaw Valley on Saturday, February 20.

The defending world champion was Lucile Wheeler of Canada, who had retired the previous year; defending Olympic champion Madeleine Berthod of Switzerland did not compete in this event.

Nineteen-year-old Heidi Biebl of Germany won the gold medal, while American Penny Pitou was a second behind for the silver; the bronze medalist was Traudl Hecher of Austria.

The race was run on KT-22, with a starting elevation of above sea level; the course length was , with a vertical drop of . Biebl's winning time of 97.6 seconds yielded an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of .

Helmets This was the first Olympic downhill in which crash helmets were mandatory, following the race death in 1959 of Canadian John Semmelink at Garmisch, West Germany. During his final race, Semmelink wore a leather helmet, which was more protection than many racers used at the time. The U.S. Ski Team first wore crash helmets at the 1956 Winter Olympics, but most of the Europeans went without.

Results Saturday, February 20, 1960 The race was started at 10:00 local time, (UTC −8). Rank Name Country Time Difference Heidi Biebl 1:37.6 — Penny Pitou 1:38.6 +1.0 Traudl Hecher 1:38.9 +1.3 4 Pia Riva 1:39.9 +2.3 5 Jerta Schir 1:40.5 +2.9 6 Anneliese Meggl 1:40.8 +3.2 7 Sonja Sperl 1:41.0 +3.4 8 Erika Netzer 1:41.1 +3.59 Yvonne Rüegg 1:41.6 +4.0 Carla Marchelli 11 Barbi Henneberger 1:42.4 +4.812 Anne Heggtveit 1:42.9 +5.3 Marit Haraldsen 14 Thérèse LeducArlette Grosso 1:44.2 +6.6 Jolanda Schir 17 Nancy Holland 1:45.2 +7.6 18 Marguerite Leduc 1:45.6 +8.0 19 Stalina Demidova-Korzukhina 1:46.5 +8.9 20 Yevgeniya Kabina-Sidorova 1:46.7 +9.1 21 Joan Hannah 1:47.9 +10.3 22 Nancy Greene 1:48.3 +10.7 23 Lyubov Volkova 1:49.2 +11.6 24 Marían Navarro 1:49.7 +12.1 25 Josephine Gibbs 1:50.3 +12.7 26 Margrit Gertsch 1:50.4 +12.8 27 Christine Davy 1:50.6 +13.0 28 Wendy Farrington 1:50.8 +13.2 29 María Cristina Schweizer 1:51.0 +13.4 30 Liv Jagge-Christiansen 1:51.2 +13.6 31 Renate Holmes 1:51.9 +14.3 32 Elizabeth Greene 1:53.3 +15.7 33 Linda Meyers 1:53.4 +15.8 34 Cecilia Womersley 1:59.5 +21.9 35 Liselotte Michel 2:01.0 +23.4 36 Trish Prain 2:01.5 +23.9 37 Astrid Sandvik 2:02.9 +25.3 38 Janine Monterrain 2:03.0 +25.4 39 Putzi Frandl 2:11.6 +34.0 - Betsy Snite DQ - - Annemarie Waser DQ - - Herlinde Beutlhauser DQ -

References