Alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill

The marquee event of alpine skiing was held on February 10 at the Snowbasin ski area, east of Ogden under clear skies.

Designed by 1972 gold medalist Bernhard Russi, the steep "Grizzly Downhill" course was just 1.77 miles (2.86 km) in length, and began at a lofty 9288 feet (2831 m) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 2897 feet (883 m). The average gradient on the Grizzly Downhill was 30.87% (17.98°), exceeding the classic layouts of Kitzbühel (860 m vertical / 3312 m length = 25.97%, 15.05°) and Wengen (1025 m vertical / 4455 m length = 23.01%, 13.30°).

The top five finishers completed the course in less than 100 seconds, making it the quickest descending Olympic downhill, at an average vertical descent of more than 29 ft/s (8.8 m/s). [1] The average speed of the medalists for the entire course exceeded 64 mph (103 km/h), rating it among the fastest courses in international competition.

Pre-race favorite Stephan Eberharter of Austria took the bronze medal, bested by compatriot Fritz Strobl and the all-rounder Lasse Kjus of Norway.