Poster for the film “Downhill Racer” directed by Michael Ritchie. With a screenplay by James Salter based on “The Downhill Racers”, a novel by Oakley Hall (1963), this film tells the story of a talented downhill skier who joins the US team in Europe to take part in international competitions, including the Olympic Games, where he wins a gold medal. An accomplished skier, Robert Redford who starred the heros helped finance and develop the project. The entire production film travelled to Grenoble in 1968, travelling with the American ski team in buses and sleeping in the same hotels to absorb the atmosphere and observe the athletes. The film was generally well received. In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert called it “the best movie ever made about sports – without really being about sports at all”. Purchase