The Men's downhill competition of the 1984 Winter Olympics was held at Bjelašnica, Yugoslavia. Due to weather delays, it was run on Thursday, February 16, a full week after originally scheduled. The reigning world champion was Harti Weirather of Austria, while teammate Franz Klammer was the reigning World Cup downhill champion and Switzerland's Urs Räber led the current season. Similar to 1980, the defending Olympic downhill champion was from Austria and did not compete; Leonhard Stock was injured a month earlier in early January. In order to meet the minimum vertical drop requirement of 800 m, the starting gate was in a newly constructed summit lodge and restaurant, with a connecting ramp to the mountain proper. Bill Johnson of the United States became the first from outside the Alps to win an Olympic downhill. In his first full World Cup season, he was a top "glider" and made up time on the flatter lower third of the course. The previous best finishes for an American man in an Olympic downhill was fifth (1952, 1980), and sixth (1976); American women had won three medals (1960, 1972, 1976), but never a gold. The course started at an elevation of 2076 m above sea level with a vertical drop of 803 m and a length of 3.066 km. Johnson's winning time was 105.59 seconds, yielding an average speed of 104.533 km/h, with an average vertical descent rate of 7.605 m/s.

Results

The race was started at 12:00 local time, (UTC+1). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was -9.8 C, and the snow condition was "good."