Olympic Dress Rehearsal

Swiss yodels richocheted through the snow-covered New England mountains. On the swarming ski slopes at Stowe, Vt., amid the babel of German, French, Norwegian and Italian, American voices were all but lost. The affair sounded like a dress rehearsal for next year's winter Olympics, and to the U.S. Olympic Ski Games Committee, the American-International Ski Races were just that.

While the women were onstage, the committee was pleased with the show. Picking a team was easy. Back on the long boards after a two-year layoff, Andrea Mead Lawrence, 22, first U.S. skier ever to win two Olympic gold medals (1952), whipped downhill with her old breathtaking skill, took first place in the slalom and giant slalom, tied for first in the downhill competition. Close behind Andy in the combined scoring, Katy Robolph, 24, from Reno, and Skeeter Werner, 21, from Steamboat Springs, Colo., poled home second and third to earn their places on the Olympic squad.

When the men performed, the U.S. show turned dull. Despite a record-breaking dash down the dangerous Nose Dive trail by Skeeter Werner's 19-year-old kid brother, Buddy, no American placed better than fifth in the combined scoring. Ahead of the U.S. entrants were such seasoned stars as Austria's Andreas Molterer, Japan's Chiharu Igaya (now a Dartmouth undergraduate) and France's Adrien Duvillard. Dartmouth Alumni Ralph Miller and Brooks Dodge finished fifth and seventh, and to fill out the eight-man U.S. Olympic team, the committee had to reach far back into the pack. Most notable scoring casualty: Dartmouth's Bill Beck, best on the U.S. squad in the 1952 Olympics, who was edged out by Stowe's Marvin Moriarity, 16.

Although the committee's choices were a matter of routine (based on scores made at Stowe and at Franconia, N.H. the week before), Dodge and Miller filed a loud demurrer when Fellow Alumnus Beck failed to make the team. In the end, Beck was chosen as an alternate. Skiing being what it is, the odds are that between now and next winter one of his teammates will plow into a tree. He still has a good chance of racing at the Olympics.

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