Downhill, Men

This was supposed to be the first Alpine event of the 1960 Winter Olympics but snowstorms forced a three-day postponement. With Austrian superstar Toni Sailer, three-time gold medalist at the 1956 Winter Olympics and 1958 World Championships, now a professional, there was no overwhelming favorite. The seventh skier off, Germany’s Hans Peter Lanig, took the lead with a time of 2:06.5, and it held up for two more skiers. But then France’s Jean Vuarnet, bronze medalist at the 1958 World Championships, came down, one of the first skiers to utilize the modern aerodynamic egg position, and he won the gold medal with his time of 2:06.0. Vuarnet also used metal skis, the first Olympic gold medalist to use what would become standard equipment until composite materials replaced metal. He later lent his name to a popular brand of sunglasses, Vuarnet Sunglasses. Vuarnet had married a French ski racer, Edith Bonlieu, and in 1994, she and their son, Patrick, were among those who participated in a mass suicide by members of the cult, the Order of the Solar Temple.