Men’s Downhill

When the competition gets underway Sunday at Hakuba, it will be going straight downhill, and fast. american Tommy Moe, the gold medalist in 1994, and his rivals will be traveling at sppeds hovering around the national spped limit -for automobiles. The men’s course is 3,588 yards and drops 3,035 feet in elevation, making for a medals race that should be determined by hundredths of a second. Here’s a look at where the downhill speeds rank in a theory of unrelativity:

150.028 mph: Skiing, men: Jeffery Hamilton, April 14, 1995

135.74: Barefoot waterskiing, men: Scott Michael Pellanton, 1989

103.1: Snowmobile: Enrich Brenter, 1964

78.37: Skateboarding: Roger Hickey, March 15, 1990

70: Animal: cheetah

64.95: Average speed during Olympic competition, downhill skiing, men: Bill Johnson, U.S., 1984. (Note: downhillers on the olympic course in Nagano can be expected to reach speeds of 75 to 80 mph)

27.98: Human being

16.24: Cross-country skiing: Aleksel Prokororov during 50-km race at Thunder Bay, Canada, March 19, 1994

0.03: Snail