Alpine skiing at the 1960 Winter Olympics – Women's downhill


The Women's downhill competition of the Squaw Valley 1960 Olympics was held at Squaw Valley on Saturday, February 20.
The defending world champion was Lucille Wheeler of Canada, who had retired the previous year; defending Olympic champion Madeleine Berthod of Switzerland did not compete in this event.
Nineteen-year-old Heidi Biebl of Germany won the gold medal, while American Penny Pitou was a second behind for the silver; the bronze medalist was Traudl Hecher of Austria.
The race was run on KT-22, with a starting elevation of above sea level; the course length was, with a vertical drop of. Biebl's winning time of 97.6 seconds yielded an average speed of, with an average vertical descent rate of.

Helmets

This was the first Olympic downhill in which crash helmets were mandatory, following the race death in 1959 of Canadian John Semmelink at Garmisch, West Germany. During his final race, Semmelink wore a leather helmet, which was more protection than many racers used at the time. The U.S. Ski Team first wore crash helmets at the 1956 Winter Olympics, but most of the Europeans went without.

Results

Saturday, February 20, 1960
The race was started at 10:00 local time,.
RankNameCountryTimeDifference
Heidi Biebl1:37.6—
Penny Pitou1:38.6+1.0
Traudl Hecher1:38.9+1.3
4Pia Riva1:39.9+2.3
5Jerta Schir1:40.5+2.9
6Anneliese Meggl1:40.8+3.2
7Sonja Sperl1:41.0+3.4
8Erika Netzer1:41.1+3.5
9Yvonne Rüegg1:41.6+4.0
9Carla Marchelli1:41.6+4.0
11Barbi Henneberger1:42.4+4.8
12Anne Heggtveit1:42.9+5.3
12Marit Haraldsen1:42.9+5.3
14Thérèse Leduc
Arlette Grosso		1:44.2+6.6
14Jolanda Schir1:44.2+6.6
17Nancy Holland1:45.2+7.6
18Marguerite Leduc1:45.6+8.0
19Stalina Demidova-Korzukhina1:46.5+8.9
20Yevgeniya Kabina-Sidorova1:46.7+9.1
21Joan Hannah1:47.9+10.3
22Nancy Greene1:48.3+10.7
23Lyubov Volkova1:49.2+11.6
24Marían Navarro1:49.7+12.1
25Josephine Gibbs1:50.3+12.7
26Margrit Gertsch1:50.4+12.8
27Christine Davy1:50.6+13.0
28Wendy Farrington1:50.8+13.2
29María Cristina Schweizer1:51.0+13.4
30Liv Jagge-Christiansen1:51.2+13.6
31Renate Holmes1:51.9+14.3
32Elizabeth Greene1:53.3+15.7
33Linda Meyers1:53.4+15.8
34Cecilia Womersley1:59.5+21.9
35Liselotte Michel2:01.0+23.4
36Trish Prain2:01.5+23.9
37Astrid Sandvik2:02.9+25.3
38Janine Monterrain2:03.0+25.4
39Putzi Frandl2:11.6+34.0
-Betsy SniteDQ-
-Annemarie WaserDQ-
-Herlinde BeutlhauserDQ-