The games were marred by tragedy due to the deaths of Australian skier Ross Milne and Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki a Polish-born British luge athlete during practice.

Peter Brockhoff withdrew from the downhill event, saying "I simply cannot compete on this course where I lost my best friend".

Hugh Weir reported to the Australian Olympic Federation that Dr Blaxland said that he was wrong about his age (he was nineteen), and that the IOC was wrong to suggest he was inexperienced: Manager John Wagner said that Milne had found the path 150 metres ahead of him obscured by contestants congregating because the top part of the downhill course was overcrowded, and tried to slow down "on a spot which was not prepared for stopping or swinging".

He argued that the accident might have been prevented by stricter management of the downhill course, which had a hundred racers on it.

He said that the suggestion that skiers from Australia and New Zealand should not compete on downhill courses gave him motivation to prove that they were capable of doing so.