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- 1992 WINTER OLYMPICS, Page 53Peaks & Valleys
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- The feast of sportsmanship had its dubious moments too
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- -- Compiled by Jonathan Abbey
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- -- MOST HEART-STOPPING SPORT
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- 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.
-
- -- BIGGEST HIGH AND LOW FOR ONE ATHLETE
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- 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.
-
- -- MOST NOBLE IN DEFEAT
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- 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.
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- -- MOST SOPHISTICATED SKATING OUTFIT
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- 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.
-
- -- MOST EXACTING TIE SCORE
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- 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.
-
- -- MOST EMBARRASSING TRAFFIC JAM
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- 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.
-
- -- WORST PUBLICITY MATERIAL
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- 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.
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- -- MOST IRASCIBLE RELATIVE
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- 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.
-
- -- WORST DILETTANTE, ROYAL DIVISION
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- Prince Albert of Monaco, whose bobsled wound up in 43rd
- place in a field of 46 competitors.
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- -- BEST COMEBACK FROM AN ILLNESS
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- 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.
-
- -- WORST LOSERS
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- 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."
-
- -- MOST BITING REBUKE TO A LAGGING TEAM
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- 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.
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-
- ECHOES
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- "Congratulations, Alberto. Thank you very much, me."
-
- -- ITALY'S ALBERTO TOMBA
- After winning gold in the giant slalom
-
- "You know, the regular four-letter stuff. The universal
- language."
-
- -- CANADIAN HOCKEY STAR ERIC LINDROS
- On what he said during a run-in with a Unified Team member
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- "When you're in the air, you just have to accept that
- you're in the air and have a good time up there."
-
- -- U.S. SKIER KRISTA SCHMIDINGER
- Describing a treacherous bump on the women's downhill
- course
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- "We'd like to see more girls. We cannot even use the
- condoms that are provided."
-
- -- FINNISH HOCKEY PLAYER KEIJO SAILYNOJA
- Complaining about the isolation of his accommodations
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- "I just flew."
-
- -- FINNISH WUNDERKIND SKI JUMPER TONI NIEMINEN
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