Alpine skiing at the 1994 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill


The Men's Downhill competition of the Lillehammer 1994 Olympics was held at Kvitfjell on Sunday, 13 February.
The reigning world champion was Luc Alphand and the reigning Olympic champion was Patrick Ortlieb; Franz Heinzer was the defending World Cup downhill champion and Marc Girardelli led the current season.
Tommy Moe, an American of Norwegian ancestry, edged out Kjetil André Aamodt of Norway by 0.04 seconds to take the gold medal in the downhill. Ed Podivinsky of Canada was the bronze medalist, just 0.12 seconds behind Moe. Ortlieb was fourth, Girardelli fifth, Alphand eighth, and Heinzer did not finish.
The defending champion was in the field for the first time since 1976, when 1972 champion Bernhard Russi won the silver medal. Ortlieb was just off the podium in 1994, which remains the second-best result by a defending champion. Prior to Russi, only two champions had been in the field to defend, but neither made the top ten: Henri Oreiller was 14th in 1952 and Egon Zimmermann finished 13th in 1968.
The Olympiabakken course started at an elevation of above sea level with a vertical drop of and a course length of. Moe's winning time was 105.75 seconds, yielding an average course speed of, with an average vertical descent rate of.

Results

The race was started at 11:00 local time,. At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was, and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was lower, at.
RankBibNameCountryTimeDifference
8Tommy Moe1:45.75—
7Kjetil André Aamodt1:45.79+0.04
21Ed Podivinsky1:45.87+0.12
410Patrick Ortlieb1:46.01+0.26
51Marc Girardelli1:46.09+0.34
62Hannes Trinkl1:46.22+0.47
633Nicolas Burtin1:46.22+0.47
813Luc Alphand1:46.25+0.50
915Atle Skårdal1:46.29+0.54
1017Jan Einar Thorsen1:46.34+0.59
1126Kyle Rasmussen1:46.35+0.60
123Peter Runggaldier1:46.39+0.64
134Pietro Vitalini1:46.48+0.73
145Daniel Mahrer1:46.55+0.80
1511Armin Assinger1:46.68+0.93
169William Besse1:46.76+1.01
1730A J Kitt1:46.82+1.07
1819Lasse Kjus1:46.84+1.09
1914Günther Mader1:46.87+1.12
2012Kristian Ghedina1:46.99+1.24
2122Luigi Colturi1:47.05+1.30
2220Christophe Plé1:47.11+1.36
2324Franco Cavegn1:47.15+1.40
2423Jean-Luc Crétier1:47.27+1.52
2527Hansjörg Tauscher1:47.30+1.55
2635Graham Bell1:47.39+1.64
2729Luke Sauder1:47.45+1.70
2832Martin Bell1:47.49+1.74
2936Jürgen Hasler1:47.62+1.87
3038Janne Leskinen1:47.87+2.12
3128Ralf Socher1:47.93+2.18
3231Fredrik Nyberg1:47.97+2.22
3341Achim Vogt1:47.98+2.23
3434Patrik Järbyn1:48.05+2.30
3544Miran Ravter1:48.48+2.73
3618Markus Wasmeier1:48.53+2.78
3742Andrey Filichkin1:48.81+3.06
3837Craig Thrasher1:48.91+3.16
3925Markus Foser1:48.93+3.18
4045Marco Büchel1:48.97+3.22
4140Georges Mendes1:49.20+3.45
4239Nils Linneberg1:49.80+4.05
4349Andrey Kolotvin1:50.39+4.64
4447Petar Dichev1:51.07+5.32
4551Maríano Puricelli1:52.38+6.63
4646Marcin Szafrański1:52.59+6.84
4750Zurab Dzhidzhishvili1:53.27+7.52
4853Hubertus von Hohenlohe1:53.37+7.62
4948Diego Margozzini1:55.32+9.57
5055Lothar Christian Munder1:56.48+10.73
-6Cary MullenDNF-
-16Franz HeinzerDNF-
-43Vasily BezsmelnitsynDQ-
-52Connor O'BrienDNF-
-54Lamine GuèyeDNF-