The marquee event of alpine skiing was held on February 10 at the Snowbasin ski area, east of Ogden under clear skies.[1]
Designed by 1972 gold medalist Bernhard Russi, the steep "Grizzly Downhill" course was just 1.77 miles (2.86 km) in length, and began at a lofty 9288 feet (2831 m) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 2897 feet (883 m). The average gradient on the Grizzly Downhill was 30.87% (17.98°), exceeding the classic layouts of Kitzbühel (860 m vertical / 3312 m length = 25.97%, 15.05°) and Wengen (1025 m vertical / 4455 m length = 23.01%, 13.30°).
The top five finishers completed the course in less than 100 seconds, making it the quickest descending Olympic downhill, at an average vertical descent of more than 29 ft/s (8.8 m/s). The average speed of the medalists for the entire course exceeded 64 mph (103 km/h), rating it among the fastest courses in international competition.
Pre-race favorite Stephan Eberharter of Austria took the bronze medal, bested by compatriot Fritz Strobl and the all-rounder Lasse Kjus of Norway.
| Rank | Name | Country | Time | Difference |
|---|
| {{gold01}} | Fritz Strobl | {{flagIOC|AUT|2002 Winter}} | 1:39.13 |
| {{silver02}} | Lasse Kjus | {{flagIOC|NOR|2002 Winter}} | 1:39.35 | +0.22 |
| {{bronze03}} | Stephan Eberharter | {{flagIOC|AUT|2002 Winter}} | 1:39.41 | +0.28 |
| 04|4}} | Kjetil André Aamodt | {{flagIOC|NOR|2002 Winter}} | 1:39.78 | +0.65 |
| 05|5}} | Claude Crétier | {{flagIOC|FRA|2002 Winter}} | 1:39.96 | +0.83 |
| 06|6}} | Christian Greber | {{flagIOC|AUT|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.00 | +0.87 |
| 07|7}} | Fredrik Nyberg | {{flagIOC|SWE|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.30 | +1.17 |
| 08|8}} | Ambrosi Hoffmann | {{flagIOC|SUI|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.31 | +1.18 |
| 09|9}} | Marco Sullivan | {{flagIOC|USA|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.37 | +1.24 |
| 10 | Sébastien Fournier-Bidoz | {{flagIOC|FRA|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.39 | +1.26 |
| 11 | Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin | {{flagIOC|FRA|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.58 | +1.45 |
| 12 | Bjarne Solbakken | {{flagIOC|NOR|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.74 | +1.61 |
| Antoine Dénériaz | {{flagIOC|FRA|2002 Winter}} |
| 14 | Didier Cuche | {{flagIOC|SUI|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.76 | +1.63 |
| 15 | Franco Cavegn | {{flagIOC|SUI|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.81 | +1.68 |
| 16 | Daron Rahlves | {{flagIOC|USA|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.84 | +1.71 |
| 17 | Roland Fischnaller | {{flagIOC|ITA|2002 Winter}} | 1:40.85 | +1.72 |
| 18 | Patrik Järbyn | {{flagIOC|SWE|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.05 | +1.92 |
| 19 | Alessandro Fattori | {{flagIOC|ITA|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.24 | +2.11 |
| 20 | Christoph Gruber | {{flagIOC|AUT|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.25 | +2.12 |
| 21 | Didier Défago | {{flagIOC|SUI|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.27 | +2.14 |
| 22 | Kurt Sulzenbacher | {{flagIOC|ITA|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.56 | +2.43 |
| 23 | Peter Pen | {{flagIOC|SLO|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.66 | +2.53 |
| 24 | Ed Podivinsky | {{flagIOC|CAN|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.69 | +2.56 |
| 25 | Kenneth Sivertsen | {{flagIOC|NOR|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.70 | +2.57 |
| 26 | Jürgen Hasler | {{flagIOC|LIE|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.76 | +2.63 |
| 27 | Jakub Fiala | {{flagIOC|USA|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.84 | +2.71 |
| 28 | Andrej Jerman | {{flagIOC|SLO|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.85 | +2.72 |
| 29 | Marco Büchel | {{flagIOC|LIE|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.86 | +2.73 |
| Scott Macartney | {{flagIOC|USA|2002 Winter}} |
| 31 | Gregor Sparovec | {{flagIOC|SLO|2002 Winter}} | 1:41.88 | +2.75 |
| 32 | Darin McBeath | {{flagIOC|CAN|2002 Winter}} | 1:42.15 | +3.02 |
| 33 | Jernej Koblar | {{flagIOC|SLO|2002 Winter}} | 1:42.41 | +3.18 |
| 34 | Max Rauffer | {{flagIOC|GER|2002 Winter}} | 1:42.52 | +3.39 |
| 35 | Kristian Ghedina | {{flagIOC|ITA|2002 Winter}} | 1:42.54 | +3.41 |
| 36 | Maksim Kedrin | {{flagIOC|RUS|2002 Winter}} | 1:43.04 | +3.91 |
| 37 | AJ Bear | {{flagIOC|AUS|2002 Winter}} | 1:43.19 | +4.06 |
| 38 | Dave Anderson | {{flagIOC|CAN|2002 Winter}} | 1:43.20 | +4.07 |
| 39 | Ondřej Bank | {{flagIOC|CZE|2002 Winter}} | 1:43.33 | +4.20 |
| 40 | Borek Zakouřil | {{flagIOC|CZE|2002 Winter}} | 1:43.63 | +4.50 |
| 41 | Andrey Filichkin | {{flagIOC|RUS|2002 Winter}} | 1:43.73 | +4.60 |
| 42 | Yasuyuki Takishita | {{flagIOC|JPN|2002 Winter}} | 1:43.75 | +4.62 |
| 43 | Pavel Chestakov | {{flagIOC|RUS|2002 Winter}} | 1:44.35 | +5.22 |
| 44 | Sergey Komarov | {{flagIOC|RUS|2002 Winter}} | 1:45.25 | +6.12 |
| 45 | Craig Branch | {{flagIOC|AUS|2002 Winter}} | 1:45.34 | +6.21 |
| 46 | Jan Holický | {{flagIOC|CZE|2002 Winter}} | 1:45.59 | +6.36 |
| 47 | Ivan Heimschild | {{flagIOC|SVK|2002 Winter}} | 1:46.36 | +7.23 |
| 48 | Maui Gayme | {{flagIOC|CHI|2002 Winter}} | 1:47.63 | +8.50 |
| 49 | Nikolay Skriabin | {{flagIOC|UKR|2002 Winter}} | 1:47.65 | +8.52 |
| 50 | Mikael Gayme | {{flagIOC|CHI|2002 Winter}} | 1:48.37 | +9.24 |
| 51 | Alexander Heath | {{flagIOC|RSA|2002 Winter}} | 1:48.84 | +9.71 |
| 52 | Nicolás Arsel | {{flagIOC|ARG|2002 Winter}} | 1:49.75 | +10.62 |
| 53 | Paul Schwarzacher-Joyce | {{flagIOC|IRL|2002 Winter}} | 1:54.42 | +15.29 |
| 99|}} | Ross Green | {{flagIOC|GBR|2002 Winter}} | 9:99.99|DNS}} |
| 99|}} | Cristian Javier Simari Birkner | {{flagIOC|ARG|2002 Winter}} | 9:99.99|DSQ}} |
1. ^{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/2002/ASK/mens-downhill.html |title=Alpine Skiing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games: Men's Downhill |accessdate=31 March 2018 |work=Sports Reference}}