Olympic skiing schedule: Men’s downhill medal round date, odds, predictions

The downhill is always one of the more exciting events at the Winter Olympics, and that’s for one simple reason—speed. This race is all about getting down the mountain as fast as you can. Skiers do have to navigate turns through a series of widely spaced gates on their way down, but the technical skills are secondary to raw speed. Athletes are judged strictly on time.

This year’s men’s competition in the downhill should feature plenty of excitement. In fact, in the history of the games, only five skiers have successfully repeated as gold medal champions across all the different alpine skiing events.

Men’s downhill schedule

Date: Saturday, Feb 5
Time: 10 p.m. ET
TV channel: USA
Live stream: Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

Gold medal odds and predictions

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway is the favorite to take the gold in the downhill with odds sitting at +250. Kilde tore his ACL in January last year, but he bounced back in a big way at the World Cup this year, winning the downhill and the super G.

After winning bronze in the downhill at the World Cup last month, German skier Matthias Mayer is poised for a big showing in Beijing. His odds for gold are set at +600. He didn’t look good in his first training run on the new course, but it’s a brand new hill that everyone at the games is going to have to learn.

Beat Feuz from Switzerland had a strong showing at the World Cup too, winning bronze in the downhill. We like him to take home silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics. He’s got odds of +300 to win.

Another Swiss skier to keep your eye on is Marco Odermatt. He gave Feuz a run for his money at the World Cup, and he’s skiing better than he ever has. These games are his big breakout on the world stage, and we like him to win bronze. He’s current at +700 to win gold.

A couple of Team USA names to watch are Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Bryce Bennett. Both finished in the top 10 during training runs on the Beijing course this week. Cochrain-Siegle competed at the games in 2018, finishing 23rd in the downhill. Bennett, an 11-year veteran of Team USA, finished 11th in the downhill at the 2018 games.

All odds are courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.