Daily Updates — Live from Nagano

Men's Slalom Report by Martin Bell [click to listen]

Four Norwegians in the Top-10

Norway has produced yet another surprising young talent in men's slalom. Last year it was Tom Stiansen's sharp victory at the 1997 World Alpine Ski Championships, and this year 22-year-old Hans-Petter Buraas came from nowhere to become the new Olympic slalom champion, following in the footsteps of such great names as Ingemar Stenmark, Phil Mahre, Alberto Tomba and Buraas' Norwegian teammate Finn Christian Jagge.

Buraas, who had died his hair red especially for this occasion, skied a magnificent second run to push his veteran Norwegian teammate, Ole Christian Furuseth, into second place by more than a second.

Furuseth was the pioneer for the Norwegian alpine ski team back in the late 1980's, when Buraas was still a kid.

Sykora (AUT)

The leader after the first run, Thomas Sykora of Austria, dropped back to third place on the second run, but maintained Austria's record of acheiving at least one medal in each of the men's alpine skiing events at these Olympics.

Yet another Norwegian, Tom Stiansen, finished 4th, and his teammate, Finn Christian Jagge, placed 7th. Such was the strength of this Norwegian foursome, that neither Lasse Kjus nor Kjetil Andre Aamodt, both world class slalom skiers, were even able to get onto the team.

On a misty, foggy day, Alberto Tomba seemed to lack motivation. And after a lackluster 17th place on the first run, he withdrew himself from the competition. A sad end to a magnificent career.

Overall, these alpine skiing events at Nagano must be judged to have been a success. Despite the unreliable weather and the constant annoying postponement, all of the races provided great tests of technique, nerve and strength and all were won by magnificent performances.

All of the women's events were won by firm favorites, whereas the men's events, apart from Hermann Maier's two commanding victories, were won by surprise outsiders. The rest of this season's World Cup circuit will effectively be a victory lap for Hermann Maier and Katja Seizinger and the next major event for the world's best skiers will be the World Alpine Ski Championships at Vail Colorado early in 1999.

Results

1 Hans-Petter Buraas Norway 1:49.31
2 Ole Christian Furuseth Norway 1:50.64
3 Thomas Sykora Austria 1:50.68
4 Tom Stiansen Norway  1:50.90
5 Christian Mayer Austria 1:51.09
6 Thomas Stangassinger Austria 1:51.25
7 Finn Christian Jagge Norway 1:51.39
8 Joel Chenal France 1:51.51
9 Kalle Palander Finland 1:51.81
10 Pierrick Bourgeat France 1:51.82
11 Matteo Nana Italy 1:51.96
12 Didier Plaschy Switzerland 1:52.03
13 Kiminobu Kimura Japan 1:52.15
14 Sebastien Amiez France 1:52.19
15 Matthew Grosjean United States 1:52.56
16 Angelo Weiss Italy 1:52.80
17 Matjaz Vrhovnik Slovenia 1:54.65
18 Paul Accola Switzerland 1:54.91
19 Michael Von Gruenigen Switzerland 1:54.96
20 Gaku Hirasawa Japan 1:55.24
21 Takuya Ishioka Japan 1:55.69
22 Stefan Georgiev Bulgaria 1:56.12
23 Seung Wook Hur Korea 1:58.01
24 Gabriel Hottegindre Uruguay 2:03.27
25 Sveinn Brynjolfsson Iceland 2:06.18
26 Alexander Heath South Africa 2:14.44
27 Arsen Haroutiunian Armenia 2:15.11
28 Kamil Urumbaev Uzbekistan 2:18.85
29 Arif Alaftargil Turkey 2:25.09
30 Hassan Shemshaki Iran 2:26.99
31 William Schenker Puerto Rico 2:28.88

Alberto Tomba Italy did not start
Andrzej Bachleda Poland  did not finish
Bode Miller United States did not finish         
Thomas Loedler Croatia did not finish
Marcel Maxa Czech Republic did not finish
Peter Ditschev Bulgaria did not finish         
Drago Grubelnik Slovenia  disqualified