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
John Curry to take figure skating lessons under the guidance of Ken Vickers at the Summerhill Road rink in Birmingham. After his father died of tuberculosis, when John was 16, he moved to London to study with Arnold Gerschwiler, who coached him to his first British title in 1971. In 1972, Curry found an American sponsor who enabled him to study in the United States with Gus Lussi and Carlo Fassi. Fassi coached Curry to European, World, and Olympic titles in 1976. In the same year, he was the flag bearer at the Winter Olympics for Great Britain and was voted BBC