How it unfolded
France's Jean Vuarnet won the Squaw Valley Olympic downhill on radically new metal skis, skiing in a low, crouched aerodynamic position that would come to be known as the egg. Until then most racers had used wooden skis in a relatively upright stance, but Vuarnet proved that minimizing air resistance by dropping the body as low as possible created a decisive time advantage at high speed. The position spread instantly among downhill racers worldwide after the race and became the standard speed-discipline stance within a few winters. Vuarnet's win was also France's only alpine skiing gold at these Games.
Why it still matters
This downhill proved how dramatically equipment and body position could change a result, defining the standard of speed-discipline technique until the carving-ski revolution arrived decades later. The egg position was fully popularized in the Jean-Claude Killy era that followed and remains the root of the basic stance every downhill and super-G racer still learns.