The Men's Downhill competition of the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, was held at Patscherkofel on Thursday, 5 February,[1][2][3] on the same course as in 1964.

Klammer won the gold medal, Russi took the silver, and Herbert Plank of Italy was the bronze medalist.

At age 22, the win elevated him to an international celebrity and he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

[7] Egon Zimmermann, also of Austria, took the gold medal a dozen years earlier in the 1964 Olympic downhill.

Through 2022, no Olympic men's downhill champion has repeated; Russi remains the sole defender to medal.