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

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Women's downhill
at the VIII Olympic Winter Games
Alpine skiing
VenueSquaw Valley
DateFebruary 20
Competitors42 from 14 nations
Winning time1:37.6
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Heidi Biebl  United Team of Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Penny Pitou  United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Traudl Hecher  Austria
← 1956
1964 →
Alpine skiing at the
1960 Winter Olympics
Downhillmenwomen
Giant slalommenwomen
Slalommenwomen
Women's Downhill
LocationSquaw Valley – KT-22
Vertical   557 m (1,827 ft)
Top elevation2,447 m (8,028 ft)  
Base elevation1,894 m (6,214 ft)

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

[edit]

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

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

Rank Name Country Time Difference
1st place, gold medalist(s) Heidi Biebl  United Team of Germany 1:37.6 —
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Penny Pitou  United States 1:38.6 +1.0
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 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
Carla Marchelli  Italy
11 Barbi Henneberger  United Team of Germany 1:42.4 +4.8
12 Anne Heggtveit  Canada 1:42.9 +5.3
Marit Haraldsen  Norway
14 Thérèse Leduc
Arlette Grosso		  France 1:44.2 +6.6
Jolanda Schir  Italy
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

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  1. ^ a b c "VIII Olympic Winter Games Squaw Valley, California 1960 - Final Report". California Olympic Commission. LA84 Foundation. 1960. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ "1958 World Championships results". FIS. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  4. ^ Smits, Ted (February 21, 1960). "Heidi Beibl nips Penny down hill". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. p. 1, sports.
  5. ^ Uhrhammer, Jerry (February 21, 1960). "Skiers come to grief on 'Airplane Turn'". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. 1B.
  6. ^ a b c Masia, Seth. "Ski helmets: how we got here". International Skiing History Association. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
  7. ^ "Tragedy mars Canadian ski triumph". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. February 9, 1959. p. 17.
  8. ^ "Ski crash kills Canadian youth". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. February 8, 1959. p. 4, sports.
  9. ^ "Crash helmets for U.S. ski squad". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. (Florida). Associated Press. January 25, 1956. p. 11.
  10. ^ "Skiers cut loose at high speeds in tests". Ocala Star-Banner. (Florida). Associated Press. February 15, 1960. p. 7.
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