Downhill, Men

No man had dominated downhill skiing in the past five years, so the event was considered wide open. Norway’s favorite was Kjetil André Aamodt, who was the seventh skier out of the starthouse. The leader at the time was Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli, but the Norwegian fans went crazy when Aamodt bested his time by 0.34 seconds. The next skier was American Tommy Moe, who was a solid skier on the World Cup circuit but had never won a World Cup race. No matter, for Moe went ahead, edging Aamodt by 0.04 seconds. As the remaining skiers came down, Moe’s time held up for an unlikely gold medal. He would never again win a World Cup downhill race, and would win only one other World Cup race ever, a super-G later in March 1994. The 1994 downhill was one of the closest ever overall as less than one second separated the first 15 finishers.