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Women's Downhill
Women's Downhill
Location	Squaw Valley – KT-22
Vertical	557 m (1,827 ft)
Top elevation	2,447 m (8,028 ft)
Base elevation	1,894 m (6,214 ft)

Women's downhill
at the VIII Olympic Winter Games
Women's downhill; at the VIII Olympic Winter Games
	Alpine skiing
Venue	Squaw Valley
Date	February 20, 1960
Competitors	42 from 14 nations
Winning time	1:37.6
Medalists
	← 1956 1964 →

The Women's downhill competition of the Squaw Valley 1960 Olympics was held at Squaw Valley on Saturday, February 20.^[1]^[2]

The defending world champion was Lucile Wheeler of Canada,^[3] 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.^[4]^[5]

The race was run on KT-22, with a starting elevation of 2,447 m (8,028 ft) above sea level; the course length was 1.828 km (1.136 mi), with a vertical drop of 553 m (1,814 ft).^[1] Biebl's winning time of 97.6 seconds yielded an average speed of 67.426 km/h (41.9 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 5.666 m/s (18.6 ft/s).

Helmets

This was the first Olympic downhill in which crash helmets were mandatory,^[6] following the race death in 1959 of Canadian John Semmelink at Garmisch, West Germany.^[7]^[8] During his final race, Semmelink wore a leather helmet, which was more protection than many racers used at the time.^[6] The U.S. Ski Team first wore crash helmets at the 1956 Winter Olympics,^[9] but most of the Europeans went without.^[6]^[10]

Results

Saturday, February 20, 1960
The race was started at 10:00 local time, (UTC −8).

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Difference
	Heidi Biebl	United Team of Germany	1:37.6	—
	Penny Pitou	United States	1:38.6	+1.0
	Traudl Hecher	Austria	1:38.9	+1.3
4	Pia Riva	Italy	1:39.9	+2.3
5	Jerta Schir	Italy	1:40.5	+2.9
6	Anneliese Meggl	United Team of Germany	1:40.8	+3.2
7	Sonja Sperl	United Team of Germany	1:41.0	+3.4
8	Erika Netzer	Austria	1:41.1	+3.5
9	Yvonne Rüegg	Switzerland	1:41.6	+4.0
9	Carla Marchelli	Italy	1:41.6	+4.0
11	Barbi Henneberger	United Team of Germany	1:42.4	+4.8
12	Anne Heggtveit	Canada	1:42.9	+5.3
12	Marit Haraldsen	Norway	1:42.9	+5.3
14	Thérèse Leduc Arlette Grosso	France	1:44.2	+6.6
14	Jolanda Schir	Italy	1:44.2	+6.6
17	Nancy Holland	Canada	1:45.2	+7.6
18	Marguerite Leduc	France	1:45.6	+8.0
19	Stalina Demidova-Korzukhina	Soviet Union	1:46.5	+8.9
20	Yevgeniya Kabina-Sidorova	Soviet Union	1:46.7	+9.1
21	Joan Hannah	United States	1:47.9	+10.3
22	Nancy Greene	Canada	1:48.3	+10.7
23	Lyubov Volkova	Soviet Union	1:49.2	+11.6
24	Marían Navarro	Spain	1:49.7	+12.1
25	Josephine Gibbs	Great Britain	1:50.3	+12.7
26	Margrit Gertsch	Switzerland	1:50.4	+12.8
27	Christine Davy	Australia	1:50.6	+13.0
28	Wendy Farrington	Great Britain	1:50.8	+13.2
29	María Cristina Schweizer	Argentina	1:51.0	+13.4
30	Liv Jagge-Christiansen	Norway	1:51.2	+13.6
31	Renate Holmes	Great Britain	1:51.9	+14.3
32	Elizabeth Greene	Canada	1:53.3	+15.7
33	Linda Meyers	United States	1:53.4	+15.8
34	Cecilia Womersley	New Zealand	1:59.5	+21.9
35	Liselotte Michel	Switzerland	2:01.0	+23.4
36	Trish Prain	New Zealand	2:01.5	+23.9
37	Astrid Sandvik	Norway	2:02.9	+25.3
38	Janine Monterrain	France	2:03.0	+25.4
39	Putzi Frandl	Austria	2:11.6	+34.0
-	Betsy Snite	United States	DQ	-
-	Annemarie Waser	Switzerland	DQ	-
-	Herlinde Beutlhauser	Austria	DQ	-

Source:^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "VIII Olympic Winter Games Squaw Valley, California 1960 - Final Report". California Olympic Commission. LA84 Foundation. 1960. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
^ "Alpine Skiing at the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Games: Women's Downhill". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
^ "1958 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
^ Smits, Ted (February 21, 1960). "Heidi Beibl nips Penny down hill". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. p. 1, sports.
^ Uhrhammer, Jerry (February 21, 1960). "Skiers come to grief on 'Airplane Turn'". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. 1B.
^ ^a ^b ^c Masia, Seth. "Ski helmets: how we got here". International Skiing History Association. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
^ "Tragedy mars Canadian ski triumph". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. February 9, 1959. p. 17.
^ "Ski crash kills Canadian youth". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. February 8, 1959. p. 4, sports.
^ "Crash helmets for U.S. ski squad". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. (Florida). Associated Press. January 25, 1956. p. 11.
^ "Skiers cut loose at high speeds in tests". Ocala Star-Banner. (Florida). Associated Press. February 15, 1960. p. 7.