Individual, Men

Frenchman Michael Prufer was the current world-record holder in the event, having recorded 223.741 km/h on the Les Arcs course back in 1987. But the preliminary round leader was Austrian Harry Egger. The next morning the semi-final round was scheduled. But while skiing prior to the round, Swiss skiier Nicolas Bochatay was killed in a tragic accident. Warming up with his teammate, Pierre-Yves Jorand, the two jumped over a mogul, but Bochatay was surprised to see a parked Sno-Cat on the course, and he crashed into it, dying quickly from the internal injuries he sustained. Jorand was un-injured, but he and another Swiss skiier, Roger Stump, withdrew from the competition. The fourth Swiss skiier, Silvano Meli, and the Swiss women’s team did continue to compete.

The semi-final round was still held and was then led by Philippe Goitschel, nephew of the famous Goitschel sisters, Christine and Marielle, who had starred in the Alpine ski events at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics. Prufer was second, but the mood was somber after Bochatay’s death. The next day, 22 February, Prufer came through to win the demonstration title, recording 229.299 km/hr to better his own world record, with Goitschel second and American Jeffrey Hamilton in third.

Bochatay’s death was the fourth associated with the Winter Olympics, following those of Australian skiier Ross Milne, who was killed while warming up for the 1964 downhill race; Swiss luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski, who died while training at Innsbruck, also in 1964, and Jørg Oberhammer, the Austrian team doctor at Calgary in 1988, who was killed while skiing between events on the course, and was struck by another skiier, which threw him into the path of a snow grooming vehicle. In 2010, the Georgian luger Nodar Komaritashvili would be the fifth to die during the Winter Olympics, when he crashed violently during a luge training run on the morning of the Vancouver Opening Ceremony.