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                                                                                1992 WINTER OLYMPICS, Page 50

Viva La Bomba!


Tomba makes history with a repeat gold medal, but upstarts and
veterans snap at his tails

By MARGOT HORNBLOWER/VAL D'ISERE


    The air was frigid, sun splashed, and electric with
suspense. Above the kaleidoscopic crowd waved the banner of the
"Tombamania Club of Pisa" with its crudely drawn Leaning Tower
and its message: GO FOR IT, ALBERTO! Horns honked. Cowbells
clanged. In the opening minutes of the giant slalom ski race,
a Swiss racer grabbed first place. But the pilgrims from Bologna
held high their sign: BIG ALBERTO, GIVE US A MEDAL. Seconds
later, a Norwegian flashed to the top of the scoreboard.
Balloons soared. Agitated claques from San Lazzaro, Sestriere
and Vidiciatico shook their posters: WHEN YOU'RE ALBERTO, YOU'RE
EVERYTHING. Now, a Luxembourg champion was winning by a hair.
But just behind, the man known as "La Bomba" was gathering
himself at the start house high on the glittering mountain. The
crowd sucked in its breath, conscious that a few hundredths of
a second would mark the difference between history and
humiliation.

    Never before had ski racing, a sport dominated by
monosyllabic mountain men, seen the likes of Alberto Tomba, the
flamboyant Bolognese flatlander who at 21 captured two gold
medals at the Calgary Olympics. Now, four years later, he was
trying to repeat the feat, having boasted to the press -- in
jest -- that he had changed his training regimen from "sleeping
with three women until 5 a.m." to "sleeping with five women
until 3 a.m." Such bravado carried onto the ski course might
make it easier to win but, oh, so much harder to lose. Clad in
turquoise spandex, the racer who once called himself "the
messiah of skiing" swiveled through 47 gates in 1:02.41, or .19
sec. faster than his closest rival. Tomba became the first
Alpine contestant ever to win two consecutive Olympic golds in
the same event. Even the triple-gilded Jean-Claude Killy had
limited himself to one Olympic year. "From the top, I could see
thousands of people along the course," Tomba recalled later. "I
felt their emotion. They were yelling, `Hop! Hop!' pushing me
through gate after gate. Many thought I couldn't do it -- but
here I am."

    On Saturday the supercharged show-off followed a mediocre
first run with a spectacular final display. But he failed to win
a fourth gold, finishing only .28 sec. behind Norway's Finn
Christian Jagge in the slalom. Tomba nonetheless declared
himself delighted with his silver, and the crowds were delighted
with him. The Bolognese had enlivened the Games with serendipity
and irresistible schmaltz. After his first triumph, Tomba sank
to his knees in the arrival area, his arms outstretched, his
head flung back in ecstasy. Then as the roar of the crowd grew,
he rose, balanced his skis upright in the palm of his hand and
pranced over to his fans. There, amid faces painted in the
green, red and white stripes of the Italian flag, a banner
greeted him: ALBERTO, THANK YOU FOR EXISTING.

    His success made Tomba one of the few world-class skiers
to withstand the burden of Olympian expectations inflated by
hyperventilating sportscasters. While Petra Kronberger, the
Salzburg superstar, reaped her second gold medal in the women's
slalom and Marc Girardelli, the Austrian-born loner who skis for
Luxembourg, won two silvers, this year's Games were otherwise
a tragic letdown for proved achievers. Switzerland's Franz
Heinzer and Vreni Schneider, Germany's Markus Wasmeier,
Austria's Hubert Strolz and Sabine Ginther -- all melted in the
spotlight. Instead, a crop of dazzling youngsters rose to the
podiums. Norway's 20-year-old Kjetil Andre Aamodt, a spitting
image of the cartoon adventurer Tintin, captured a gold and a
bronze. Aamodt, whose previous best was a second place in a
world championship, had been hospitalized in November for
mononucleosis and lost 24 lbs. If he fought his way back, he
said, it was partly because, unlike better-known stars, "I
didn't have any pressure on me, except from myself."

    Another profile in courage was that of Italy's 21-year-old
Deborah Compagnoni, who seized a gold in the women's super giant
slalom after recovering from two knee operations and stomach
surgery in which 22 in. of her intestine had been removed.
Dubbed "Tombagnoni" by the Italian press for her aggressive
skiing style, she had never finished higher than fourth in a
World Cup race. "I've had a lot of bad luck in my life," she
said. "I never thought I'd win." Then only a day later, when her
megawatt smile and shy demeanor had hardly disappeared from the
TV screens, her pitiful cries of pain were captured by a video
crew as she crashed into a gate and skidded to the side of the
giant slalom. The diagnosis: a torn ligament in her left knee
that will knock her out of competition for at least six months.

    Racers from the Alpine countries managed to sweep up the
majority of medals, but the traditionally dominant countries
were sorely challenged by the likes of 21-year-old Pernilla Wi
berg, Sweden's first Alpine gold winner since 1980, and
20-year-old Annelise Coberger, whose silver win made her New
Zealand's first Olympic Winter medalist ever. The U.S. captured
its second Alpine silver last week when veteran Diann Roffe tied
with Austria's Anita Wachter in the giant slalom. A world
championship gold medalist at 17, Roffe had been unable to
handle the fame. But after a deep slump and several injuries,
she had pulled herself together and trained hard over several
years. Now 24, she said, "The Olympic medal makes it all worth
it." A similar weary joy was voiced by Spain's Blanca Fernandez
Ochoa, a 28-year-old regular on the World Cup tour. Twenty years
ago at the Sapporo Games, her older brother Francisco won gold
in the slalom. Blanca, close to the top but never quite making
it in 11 years on the grueling international circuit, had won
no medal in the past three Olympics. Now with a bronze in
slalom, she said, "I can forget the failures that have haunted
me. You cannot imagine the enormous work of an entire life that
went into this."

    In brittle sunshine or in driving snow, the Games weren't
mere games for those who competed. Tomba could joke about how
he plans to star in Hollywood, courtesy of his new
acquaintance, Sylvester Stallone. But his stalwart fans know
there's more to his success than glitz, having followed Tomba's
post-Calgary blues, his faltering in two world championships and
his reconstruction under the severe tutelage of former Olympian
Gustavo Thoeni. "I fought to win," said the husky Bolognese. "I
gave the best of myself." Whether for giants like Tomba,
upstarts like Aamodt or veterans like Fernandez Ochoa, the
glamour has come with its fantasies and its fireworks, but only
after years of grit.