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- <text id=92TT0480>
- <title>
- Mar. 02, 1992: Peaks & Valleys
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Mar. 02, 1992 The Angry Voter
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- 1992 WINTER OLYMPICS, Page 53
- Peaks & Valleys
- </hdr><body>
- <p>The feast of sportsmanship had its dubious moments too
- </p>
- <p>-- Compiled by Jonathan Abbey
- </p>
- <p>-- MOST HEART-STOPPING SPORT
- </p>
- <p> Olympic hockey, turning rough-and-tumble, provided some of
- the most electric moments in the Games. Among them: Canada's
- 4-3 victory over Germany, which ended in a tie breaker when a
- German-launched puck blasted under the goalie, then trickled to
- a halt on--but not over--the goal line.
- </p>
- <p>-- BIGGEST HIGH AND LOW FOR ONE ATHLETE
- </p>
- <p> Only 24 hours after Italian skier Deborah Compagnoni won
- the gold medal in the super-G, she crashed in the giant slalom
- and suffered a ligament tear that ended her season.
- </p>
- <p>-- MOST NOBLE IN DEFEAT
- </p>
- <p> U.S. speed skater Dan Jansen, who finished an unexpectedly
- poor 26th in the 1,000-m event, answered a barrage of
- journalists' questions--no matter how boorish--with patience
- and dignity.
- </p>
- <p>-- MOST SOPHISTICATED SKATING OUTFIT
- </p>
- <p> Amid all the gaudy handkerchief hems and epaulets, Nancy
- Kerrigan's simple, lemon-yellow costume for the original program
- stood out as the kind of thing Grace Kelly might have worn if
- she'd been a figure skater.
- </p>
- <p>-- MOST EXACTING TIE SCORE
- </p>
- <p> American Diann Roffe and Austrian Anita Wachter both won
- silver medals in the giant slalom after finishing in the same
- hundredth of a second: 2:13.71.
- </p>
- <p>-- MOST EMBARRASSING TRAFFIC JAM
- </p>
- <p> Even though he had a 40-sec. head start, Moroccan El
- Hassan Mahta was "lapped" in the men's giant slalom by Lebanon's
- Raymond Kayrouz, who careered past the slower Mahta. Both skiers
- missed gates and were disqualified.
- </p>
- <p>-- WORST PUBLICITY MATERIAL
- </p>
- <p> The Chinese team brochure made a grand declaration of
- universal friendship, then refused to divulge anything friendly
- or otherwise about the athletes except their dates of birth.
- </p>
- <p>-- MOST IRASCIBLE RELATIVE
- </p>
- <p> Helmut Girardelli, autocratic father and coach of
- Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli, entered a restricted area and
- insisted that a barrier on the Face de Bellevarde course be
- moved to allow skiers a safer turn. Furious race officials
- confiscated his credentials for interfering, but they moved the
- barrier.
- </p>
- <p>-- WORST DILETTANTE, ROYAL DIVISION
- </p>
- <p> Prince Albert of Monaco, whose bobsled wound up in 43rd
- place in a field of 46 competitors.
- </p>
- <p>-- BEST COMEBACK FROM AN ILLNESS
- </p>
- <p> Just a week after being released from the hospital with a
- painful inflamed pancreas, Norwegian speed skater Johann Olav
- Koss won a gold medal in the 1500-m event.
- </p>
- <p>-- WORST LOSERS
- </p>
- <p> After Italian skiers Josef Polig and Gianfranco Martin
- finished 1-2 in the Alpine combined event, bumping a
- fourth-place Frenchman from the medal stand, French ski
- officials tried to have them disqualified on the grounds that
- the advertising on the winners' jackets was too large. Olympic
- officials declined to intervene, declaring, "Medals are won on
- the ground, not in offices."
- </p>
- <p>-- MOST BITING REBUKE TO A LAGGING TEAM
- </p>
- <p> When a leading Swedish newspaper, Expressen, ran two full
- pages dedicated to the "successes" of the Swedish Olympians, the
- space was blank. "There weren't any," read an explanation at the
- bottom of the pages. Swedish Alpine skier Pernilla Wiberg later
- won a gold medal in the women's giant slalom.
- </p>
- <p>-- ECHOES
- </p>
- <p> "Congratulations, Alberto. Thank you very much, me."
- </p>
- <p>-- Italy's Alberto Tomba, after winning gold in the giant slalom
- </p>
- <p> "You know, the regular four-letter stuff. The universal
- language."
- </p>
- <p>-- Canadian Hockey star Eric Lindros, on what he said during a run-in with a Unified Team member
- </p>
- <p> "When you're in the air, you just have to accept that
- you're in the air and have a good time up there."
- </p>
- <p>-- U.S. Skier Krista Schmidinger, describing a treacherous bump on the women's downhill
- course
- </p>
- <p> "We'd like to see more girls. We cannot even use the
- condoms that are provided."
- </p>
- <p>-- Finnish Hockey Player Keijo Sailynoja, complaining about the isolation of his accommodations
- </p>
- <p> "I just flew."
- </p>
- <p>-- Finnish Wunderkind Ski Jumper Toni Nieminen
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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