Alpine skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics – Women's downhill

Women's Downhill
at the XVI Olympic Winter Games
VenueMeribel
DateFebruary 15
Competitors30 from 12 nations
Winning time1:52.55
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Kerrin Lee-Gartner  Canada
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Hilary Lindh  United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Veronika Stallmaier  Austria
← 1988
1994 →
Women's downhill
LocationMeribel – Roc de Fer
Vertical   828 m (2,717 ft)
Top elevation2,260 m (7,415 ft)  
Base elevation1,432 m (4,698 ft)

The Women's downhill competition of the Albertville 1992 Olympics was held at Meribel on Saturday, 15 February.[1][2]

The defending world champion was Petra Kronberger of Austria, while Switzerland's Chantal Bournissen was the defending World Cup downhill champion and Germany's Katja Seizinger led the current season.[3][4]

Kerrin Lee-Gartner of Canada won the gold medal, Hilary Lindh of the United States took the silver, and Veronika Wallinger of Austria was the bronze medalist. Seizinger and Kronberger were close behind and just off the podium, while Bournissen failed to finish.[5][6][7] (Seizinger won the next two editions in 1994 and 1998.)

The Roc de Fer (iron rock) course started at an elevation of 2,260 m (7,415 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 828 m (2,717 ft) and a course length of 2.770 km (1.72 mi). Lee-Gartner's winning time was 112.55 seconds, yielding an average course speed of 88.601 km/h (55.1 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.357 m/s (24.1 ft/s).

Lee-Gartner was the first from outside the Alps to win a women's speed event (downhill, super-G) at the Olympics; through 2018, she remains the only Canadian to win an Olympic speed event.

Results

The race was started at 11:15 local time, (UTC +1). At the starting gate, the skies were overcast, the temperature was −2.0 °C (28.4 °F), and the snow condition was fresh; the temperature at the finish was lower, at −3.0 °C (26.6 °F).

Rank Name Country Time Difference
1st place, gold medalist(s) Kerrin Lee-Gartner  Canada 1:52.55
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Hilary Lindh  United States 1:52.61 +0.06
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Veronika Wallinger  Austria 1:52.64 +0.09
4 Katja Seizinger  Germany 1:52.67 +0.12
5 Petra Kronberger  Austria 1:52.73 +0.18
6 Katrin Gutensohn  Germany 1:53.71 +1.16
7 Barbara Sadleder  Austria 1:53.81 +1.26
8 Svetlana Gladysheva  Unified Team 1:53.85 +1.30
9 Miriam Vogt  Germany 1:53.89 +1.34
10 Heidi Zurbriggen  Switzerland 1:54.04 +1.49
11 Emi Kawabata  Japan 1:54.52 +1.97
12 Krista Schmidinger  United States 1:54.59 +2.04
13 Heidi Zeller  Switzerland 1:54.73 +2.18
Carole Merle  France
15 Astrid Lødemel  Norway 1:54.76 +2.21
16 Lucia Medzihradská  Czechoslovakia 1:54.78 +2.23
17 Régine Cavagnoud  France 1:54.94 +2.39
18 Michaela Gerg  Germany 1:54.99 +2.44
19 Tetiana Lebedeva  Unified Team 1:55.15 +2.60
20 Michelle McKendry  Canada 1:55.61 +3.06
21 Marlis Spescha  Switzerland 1:55.83 +3.28
22 Cathy Chedal  France 1:55.91 +3.36
23 Marie-Pierre Gatel  France 1:56.25 +3.70
24 Ľudmila Milanová  Czechoslovakia 1:57.85 +5.30
25 Edith Thys  United States 1:58.13 +5.58
26 Sachiko Yamamoto  Japan 1:58.52 +5.97
27 Svetlana Novikova  Unified Team 1:59.18 +6.63
28 Mihaela Fera  Romania 2:01.27 +8.72
29 Carolina Eiras  Argentina 2:02.81 +10.26
- Chantal Bournissen  Switzerland DNF -
- Warwara Zelenskaja  Unified Team DNS -
Source:[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Albertville 1992 Official Report" (PDF). Le Comite d'Organisation des Jeux Olympiques Albertville. LA84 Foundation. 1992. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  2. ^ "Alpine Skiing at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games: Women's Downhill". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  3. ^ "1991 World Cup standings". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  4. ^ "1991 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  5. ^ Lochner, Bob (February 16, 1992). "Lindh lends a hand to stun Europeans". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). (Los Angeles Times). p. 1G.
  6. ^ "For U.S., a silver lining". Nashua Telegraph. (New Hampshire). Associated Press. February 16, 1992. p. C1.
  7. ^ Johnson, William Oscar (February 24, 1992). "On slippery slopes". Sports Illustrated. p. 20.