The Men's Downhill competition of the Sapporo 1972 Olympics was held at Mount Eniwa on Monday, February 7.

[1][2] The defending world champion was Bernhard Russi of Switzerland, who was also the defending World Cup downhill champion, and Austria's Karl Schranz led the current season.

[5][6] Russi won the gold medal, teammate Roland Collombin took the silver, and Heini Messner of Austria won the bronze.

[1] The course length was 2.640 km (1.64 mi) and Russi's winning run of 111.43 seconds resulted in an average speed of 85.291 km/h (53.0 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 6.928 m/s (22.7 ft/s).

The race started at 13:30 JST (UTC+9) under clear skies, with an air temperature of −7 °C (19 °F).