| | Event type

Downhill, Men

Date	3 February 1956 — 11:00
Status	Olympic
Location	Pista Olimpia, Gillardon, Cortina d'Ampezzo
Participants	75 from 27 countries
Course Setter		UNK
Details	Gates: 15 Length: 3461 m Start Altitude: 2282 m Vertical Drop: 902 m

This was the last Alpine event at the Cortina Olympics and Austria’s Toni Sailer came into it having already won the slalom and giant slalom. Sailer expected to win, as he held the course record for the Olimpia run on Tofana. But only a few minutes before he started, Sailer broke a strap on his boots. Aided by Italian team trainer Hans Senger, Sailer was able to fix his boot in time to start. Going off as the 14th starter, the leader at the time was Germany’s Hans Peter Lanig, but Sailer bested his time by 7.6 seconds. It led to an easy victory for him as only three skiers came within five seconds of his time, with Switzerland’s Raymond Fellay second and Sailer’s teammate, Anderl Molterer, third. Acclaimed the greatest Alpine skier ever, Sailer succeeded Stein Eriksen as the sport’s superstar. In 1958 at the World Championships in Bad Gastein, he would win three of the four gold medals, failing only in the slalom where he took silver. He then turned professional and used his movie-star good looks to spend several years as an actor and singer.

Pos	Number	Competitor	NOC	Time
1	14	Toni Sailer	AUT	2:52.2	Gold
2	25	Raymond Fellay	SUI	2:55.7	Silver
3	20	Anderl Molterer	AUT	2:56.2	Bronze
4	21	Roger Staub	SUI	2:57.1
5	7	Hanspeter Lanig	GER	2:59.8
6	11	Gino Burrini	ITA	3:00.2
7	46	Kurt Hennrich	TCH	3:01.5
8	17	Charles Bozon	FRA	3:01.9
9	23	Bruno Burrini	ITA	3:02.4
10	9	Stig Sollander	SWE	3:05.4
11	4	Buddy Werner	USA	3:05.8
12	31	Sepp Behr	GER	3:07.7
13	16	Hans Forrer	SUI	3:08.0
14	35	Asle Sjåstad	NOR	3:08.8
15	12	Andrzej Gąsienica Roj	POL	3:09.3
16	32	Aleksandr Filatov	URS	3:16.6
17	38	Evžen Čermák	TCH	3:18.0
18	62	Georgi Dimitrov	BUL	3:18.1
19	29	Karl Zillibiller	GER	3:21.6
20	1	Peppi Schwaiger	GER	3:22.2
21	15	Viktor Talyanov	URS	3:26.5
22	55	Franc Cvenkelj	YUG	3:28.5
23	50	Kalevi Häkkinen	FIN	3:29.2
24	60	Georgi Varoshkin	BUL	3:30.0
25	33	André Bertrand	CAN	3:31.2
26	58	Franz Beck	LIE	3:36.8
27	48	Petar Ivanov Angelov	BUL	3:38.5
28	44	Susumu Sugiyama	JPN	3:39.1
29	36	Ludvig Dornig	YUG	3:41.1
30	87	Charlach Mackintosh	GBR	3:41.4
31	84	Nicolae Pandrea	ROU	3:46.5
32	42	Lars Mattsson	SWE	3:50.4
33	63	Muzaffer Demirhan	TUR	3:52.2
34	45	Nigel Gardner	GBR	4:00.7
35	54	Bill Day	AUS	4:02.0
36	53	Francisco Viladomat	ESP	4:02.1
37	91	Luis Molné	ESP	4:08.9
38	89	Denis Feron	BEL	4:16.6
39	72	Mahmoud Beiglou	IRI	4:22.0
40	85	Leopold Schädler	LIE	4:23.7
41	79	Vicente Vera	CHI	4:25.4
42	69	Ibrahim Geagea	LBN	4:33.1
43	81	Jean Keyrouz	LBN	4:57.6
44	77	Benik Amirian	IRI	5:02.7
45	73	Max, Prinz von Hohenlohe	LIE	5:15.8
46	90	Aris Vatimpella	GRE	5:44.2
47	92	Christos Papageorgiou	GRE	8:03.2
DQ	2	Josl Rieder	AUT	–
DQ	3	Ralph Miller, Jr.	USA	–
DQ	5	Lino Zecchini	ITA	–
DQ	6	Bill Beck	USA	–
DQ	8	Walter Schuster	AUT	–
DQ	10	Chiharu Igaya	JPN	–
DQ	13	René Collet	FRA	–
DQ	18	Adrien Duvillard	FRA	–
DQ	22	André Simond	FRA	–
DQ	24	Andreas Rüedi	SUI	–
DQ	30	Jan Zarycki	POL	–
DQ	37	Paride Milianti	ITA	–
DQ	39	Marvin Melville	USA	–
DQ	43	Kåre Opdal	NOR	–
DQ	47	Vladimír Krajňák	TCH	–
DQ	49	Trygve Berge	NOR	–
DQ	51	Sergey Shustov	URS	–
DQ	56	Osman Yüce	TUR	–
DQ	57	Jože Ilija	YUG	–
DQ	59	Jaroslav Bogdálek	TCH	–
DQ	61	Pentti Alonen	FIN	–
DQ	64	Gheorghe Cristoloveanu	ROU	–
DQ	65	Gennady Chertishchev	URS	–
DQ	71	Robin Brock-Hollinshead	GBR	–
DQ	74	Hermann Kindle	LIE	–
DQ	80	Jaime Talens	ESP	–
DQ	86	Reza Bazargan	IRI	–
DQ	93	Douglas Mackintosh	GBR	–
DNS	19	Guttorm Berge	NOR	–
DNS	25	Roland Blaesi	SUI	–
DNS	34	Jan Gąsienica Ciaptak	POL	–
DNS	52	Einar Kristjánsson	ISL	–
DNS	66	Eysteinn Þórðarson	ISL	–
DNS	70	Zeki Şamiloğlu	TUR	–
DNS	75	Luis Arias	ESP	–
DNS	76	Tony Aslangul	AUS	–
DNS	78	Alexandros Vouxinos	GRE	–
DNS	82	Mahmut Eroğlu	TUR	–
DNS	83	Frank Prihoda	AUS	–
DNS	88	Jimmy Walker	AUS	–