# Alpine skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

The Men's Downhill competition of the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held at Patscherkofel on Thursday, 5 February, on the same course as in 1964.
The defending world champion was David Zwilling of Austria, who had recently retired; Bernhard Russi of Switzerland was the defending Olympic champion. Franz Klammer of Austria was the defending World Cup downhill champion and led the current season; he had also won the pre-Olympic World Cup downhill at Patcherkofel a year earlier in January 1975.
Klammer won the gold medal, Russi took the silver, and Herbert Plank of Italy was the bronze medalist.
The starting gate was at an elevation of 1,950 m (6,398 ft) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 870 m (2,854 ft). The course length was 3.020 km (1.88 mi) and Klammer's famous winning run resulted in an average speed of 102.828 km/h (63.9 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 8.2285 m/s (27.0 ft/s), significantly faster than previous Olympic downhills. At age 22, the win elevated him to an international celebrity and he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Egon Zimmermann, also of Austria, took the gold medal a dozen years earlier in the 1964 Olympic downhill. His winning time was 2:18.16, more than a half-minute behind Klammer's.
Through 2022, no Olympic men's downhill champion has repeated; Russi remains the sole defender to medal.

## Results

| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Difference |
| | 15 | Franz Klammer | Austria | 1:45.73 | — |
| | 3 | Bernhard Russi | Switzerland | 1:46.06 | +0.33 |
| | 8 | Herbert Plank | Italy | 1:46.59 | +0.86 |
| 4 | 11 | Philippe Roux | Switzerland | 1:46.69 | +0.96 |
| 5 | 10 | Ken Read | Canada | 1:46.83 | +1.10 |
| 6 | 19 | Andy Mill | United States | 1:47.06 | +1.33 |
| 7 | 29 | Walter Tresch | Switzerland | 1:47.29 | +1.56 |
| 8 | 13 | Dave Irwin | Canada | 1:47.41 | +1.68 |
| 9 | 6 | Sepp Walcher | Austria | 1:47.45 | +1.72 |
| 10 | 5 | Jim Hunter | Canada | 1:47.52 | +1.79 |
| 11 | 30 | Greg Jones | United States | 1:47.84 | +2.11 |
| 12 | 1 | René Berthod | Switzerland | 1:47.89 | +2.16 |
| 13 | 22 | Pete Patterson | United States | 1:47.94 | +2.21 |
| 14 | 21 | Rolando Thoeni | Italy | 1:48.13 | +2.40 |
| 15 | 20 | Peter Fischer | West Germany | 1:48.18 | +2.45 |
| 16 | 24 | Patrice Pellat-Finet | France | 1:48.34 | +2.61 |
| 17 | 25 | Sepp Ferstl | West Germany | 1:48.41 | +2.68 |
| 18 | 28 | Dave Murray | Canada | 1:48.43 | +2.70 |
| 19 | 4 | Klaus Eberhard | Austria | 1:48.45 | +2.72 |
| 20 | 42 | Sumihiro Tomii | Japan | 1:48.88 | +3.15 |
| 21 | 16 | Willi Frommelt | Liechtenstein | 1:48.92 | +3.19 |
| 22 | 31 | David Griff | Australia | 1:49.02 | +3.29 |
| 22 | 2 | Michael Veith | West Germany | 1:49.02 | +3.29 |
| 24 | 27 | Karl Anderson | United States | 1:49.08 | +3.35 |
| 25 | 9 | Erik Håker | Norway | 1:49.19 | +3.46 |
| 26 | 14 | Gustavo Thoeni | Italy | 1:49.25 | +3.52 |
| 27 | 18 | Mikio Katagiri | Japan | 1:50.03 | +4.30 |
| 28 | 38 | Andreas Wenzel | Liechtenstein | 1:50.08 | +4.35 |
| 29 | 46 | Wolfgang Junginger | West Germany | 1:50.48 | +4.75 |
| 30 | 37 | Alan Stewart | Great Britain | 1:50.56 | +4.83 |
| 31 | 44 | Luis Rosenkjer | Argentina | 1:50.87 | +5.14 |
| 32 | 34 | Stuart Fitzsimmons | Great Britain | 1:50.89 | +5.16 |
| 33 | 45 | Bohumír Zeman | Czechoslovakia | 1:51.27 | +5.54 |
| 34 | 35 | Kim Clifford | Australia | 1:51.64 | +5.91 |
| 35 | 17 | Francisco Fernández Ochoa | Spain | 1:51.91 | +6.18 |
| 36 | 36 | Juan Manuel Fernández Ochoa | Spain | 1:52.40 | +6.67 |
| 37 | 43 | Andrej Koželj | Yugoslavia | 1:52.75 | +7.02 |
| 37 | 33 | Peter Fuchs | Great Britain | 1:52.75 | +7.02 |
| 39 | 39 | Juan Angel Olivieri | Argentina | 1:52.76 | +7.03 |
| 40 | 55 | Miloslav Sochor | Czechoslovakia | 1:53.48 | +7.75 |
| 41 | 32 | Jaime Ros | Spain | 1:53.50 | +7.77 |
| 42 | 59 | Jorge García | Spain | 1:53.55 | +7.82 |
| 43 | 58 | Didier Xhaet | Belgium | 1:53.56 | +7.83 |
| 44 | 49 | Vladimir Andreyev | Soviet Union | 1:53.61 | +7.88 |
| 45 | 41 | Robert Blanchaer | Belgium | 1:54.30 | +8.57 |
| 46 | 40 | Ajdin Pašović | Yugoslavia | 1:54.57 | +8.84 |
| 47 | 54 | Carlos Alberto Martínez | Argentina | 1:54.62 | +8.89 |
| 48 | 56 | Ivan Penev | Bulgaria | 1:55.56 | +9.83 |
| 49 | 74 | Dan Cristea | Romania | 1:55.63 | +9.90 |
| 50 | 70 | Georgi Kochov | Bulgaria | 1:55.82 | +10.09 |
| 51 | 47 | José Luis Koifman | Chile | 1:56.30 | +10.57 |
| 52 | 50 | Roman Dereziński | Poland | 1:56.33 | +10.60 |
| 53 | 67 | Stuart Blakely | New Zealand | 1:57.91 | +12.18 |
| 54 | 52 | Antoine Crespo | Andorra | 1:58.72 | +12.99 |
| 55 | 53 | Gorban Ali Kalhor | Iran | 1:59.15 | +13.42 |
| 56 | 62 | Mohammad Hadj Kia Shemshaki | Iran | 1:59.44 | +13.71 |
| 57 | 68 | Ion Cavaşi | Romania | 2:00.19 | +14.46 |
| 58 | 61 | Akbar Kalili | Iran | 2:00.32 | +14.59 |
| 59 | 75 | Rafael Cañas | Chile | 2:00.39 | +14.66 |
| 60 | 69 | Brett Kendall | New Zealand | 2:00.57 | +14.84 |
| 61 | 63 | Fernando Reutter | Chile | 2:01.19 | +15.46 |
| 62 | 64 | Carlos Font | Andorra | 2:01.75 | +16.02 |
| 63 | 65 | Ahmet Kıbıl | Turkey | 2:03.74 | +18.01 |
| 64 | 73 | Mümtaz Demirhan | Turkey | 2:06.01 | +20.28 |
| 65 | 71 | Thomas Karadimas | Greece | 2:14.69 | +28.96 |
| 66 | 66 | Spyros Theodorou | Greece | 2:17.08 | +31.35 |
| - | 60 | Robin Armstrong | New Zealand | DNF | - |
| - | 57 | Mohammad Kalhor | Iran | DNF | - |
| - | 51 | Xavier Areny | Andorra | DNF | - |
| - | 48 | Adrián Roncallo | Argentina | DNF | - |
| - | 26 | Konrad Bartelski | Great Britain | DNF | - |
| - | 23 | Rob McIntyre | Australia | DNF | - |
| - | 12 | Anton Steiner | Austria | DNF | - |
| - | 7 | Erwin Stricker | Italy | DNF | - |
| - | 72 | Murat Tosun | Turkey | DNS | - |
    Source: