Alpine skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill vertical drop was . The course length was and Klammer's famous winning run resulted in an average speed of , with an average vertical descent rate of . 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. Source: Alpine skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill The Men's Downhill competition of the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was
1976 Winter Olympics The selection process for the 1976 Winter Olympics consisted of four bids, and saw Denver, United States, selected ahead of Sion, Switzerland; Tampere, Finland; and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The selection was made at the 70th IOC Session in Amsterdam on 12 May 1970. In a statewide referendum on 7 November 1972, Colorado voters rejected funding for the games, and for the only time a city awarded the Games rejected them. Denver officially withdrew on 15 November, and the IOC then offered the games to Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, but they too declined owing to a change of government following