Alpine skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Women's downhill

The Women's downhill competition of the Innsbruck 1976 Olympics was held at Axamer Lizum on Sunday, 8 February.[1][2]

Women's Downhill at the XII Olympic Winter Games
Alpine skiing
Venue	Axamer Lizum
Date	February 8
Competitors	38 from 15 nations
Winning time	1:46.16
Medalists
Rosi Mittermaier  West Germany Brigitte Totschnig  Austria Cindy Nelson  United States

Alpine skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics
Downhill	men	women
Giant slalom	men	women
Slalom	men	women

The defending world champion was Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria, who was also the defending World Cup downhill champion, but spent this year away from racing to care for her ailing father; Switzerland's Bernadette Zurbriggen led the current season.[3][4] Defending Olympic champion Marie-Theres Nadig was entered in the race but did not start.

Rosi Mittermaier won the gold medal, Brigitte Totschnig of Austria took the silver, and Cindy Nelson of the United States was the bronze medalist.[5][6] Mittermaier also won the slalom and was the runner-up in the giant slalom.

The starting gate was at an elevation of 2,310 m (7,579 ft) above sea level, with a vertical drop of 700 m (2,297 ft).[1] The course length was 2.515 km (1.56 mi) and Mittermaier's winning run of 106.16 seconds resulted in an average speed of 85.286 km/h (53.0 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 6.594 m/s (21.6 ft/s).