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
1988 Winter Olympics in Montreal in 1976, Canada again failed to win a gold medal in an official medal event as the host nation. Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen and Dutch speed skater Yvonne van Gennip were individual medal leaders with each winning three gold medals. The games are also remembered for the "heroic failure" of British ski jumper Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, and the Winter Olympic début of the Jamaica national bobsled team, both of which would be subjects of major feature films about their participation in the games. The Calgary games were at the time one of the most expensive Olympics