# Alpine skiing at the 1960 Winter Olympics – Women's downhill

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 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). 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, 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 | 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 | - |
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