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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow
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Cretier ends 30-year French drought in Olympic downhill
 France's Jean-Luc Cretier |
11:00- Start
It may well be remembered as a ''Friday the 13th'' sequel on skis.
France's Jean-Luc Cretier, a four-time Olympian from Albertville, mastered a nightmarish yet thrilling course that stumped many of the world's top downhillers Friday to snare the Olympic men's downhill title.
Cretier careened down the perilous Happo-one piste in Hakuba in 1 minute, 50.11 seconds. He was the third racer down the hill in the 43-man field and sipped on mineral water while waiting to see if his time would hold.
Amazingly, few of his rivals reached the bottom. Only 28 skiers managed to cross the finish line on a course which was super-slick at the top but slow and slushy at the bottom thanks to a blazing sun.
Hermann Maier, the prerace favorite and leader of the mighty Austrian squad, was the fourth man out of the starting hut but went flying off the course and through two walls of netting in a spectacular fall just 18 seconds into his run.
Ironically, the World Cup overall leader had complained that the course was ''too flat'' during a training run last week.
The silver medal went to Norway's Olympic Alpine combined champion Lasse Kjus in 1:50.51 while Austria's Hannes Trinkl posted 1:50.63 for the bronze.
After Cretier's run, skier after skier made the same error of picking up too much speed and missing the gate around a vicious left turn which came immediately after a small ridge near the top of the run.
Italian Luca Cattaneo injured his leg and had to be airlifted by helicopter after cutting the same turn too sharply. He lost one of his skis and rammed into some netting.
Cretier, a 31-year-old customs officer, is the first Frenchman to win the Olympic downhill since the legendary Jean-Claude Killy did it in 1968.
''I think it is because of my long experience in racing that helped me win today,'' said Cretier, whose best result in the Olympic prior to Friday was fourth in the Alpine combined at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games.
''A lot of people did a lot of work on the course and I was satisfied with it. I didn't know if I could win before today,'' said a joyous Cretier, who phoned his wife and 8-year-old son soon after victory was sealed.
Tsuyoshi Tomii of Japan, receiving some of the loudest cheers from the crowd throughout his run, clocked 1:52.62 for 17th place. Defending Olympic champion Tommy Moe of the United States was 12th.
The showpiece event of the Olympic Alpine competitions was originally scheduled for last Sunday but was postponed three times due to bad weather in the Japan Alps resort village in central Japan.
On Friday, strong winds at the top of Mt. Karamatsu forced officials to delay the race by almost an hour. The repeated crashes also interrupted the running of the race.
The race also ended worries that in order to get the race in the course would have to be shortened and run from a lower altitude -- an issue over which Nagano Games organizers and the International Ski Federation (FIS) clashed for years.
Games organizers had originally sought to put the starting gate at 1,680 meters in altitude to avoid a protected national park area, but in December agreed to move it to 1,765 meters in order to make it more physically challenging.
At least one skier had hoped for a lower start.
''I think it would have been better to hold the race last Sunday from the lower start,'' said Britain's Graham Bell, who finished 23rd. ''The snow conditions were a lot better then.'' (Kyodo News)
Results of Alpine skiing men's downhill Friday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Happo-one, Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture (course 3,280 meters, vertical drop 840 meters):
1. Jean-Luc Cretier, France 1 minute, 50.11 seconds
2. Lasse Kjus, Norway 1:50.51
3. Hannes Trinkl, Austria 1:50.63
4. Juerg Gruenenfelder, Switzerland 1:50.64
5. Ed Podivinsky, Canada 1:50.71
6. Kristian Ghedina, Italy 1:50.76
7. Andreas Schifferer, Austria 1:50.77
8. Didier Cuche, Switzerland 1:50.91
9. Kyle Rasmussen, U.S. 1:51.09
10. Patrik Jaerbyn, Sweden 1:51.22
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17. Tsuyoshi Tomii, Japan 1:52.62
Yasuyuki Takishita, Japan Did not finish
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Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun