On Their Own Snow

Obviously, there is no home-court advantage in skiing. At last week's American International ski meet at Vail, Colo., competing on a mountain they had never seen before, the Austrians and French proved once again that they are more than a match for the best skiers the U.S. can produce.

It wasn't supposed to work out that way. At the 1964 Winter Olympics, the U.S. scored a major breakthrough when Billy Kidd and Jimmy Heuga placed two-three in the special slalom and Jean Saubert won two medals by herself.

This winter, instead of competing in Europe, the Americans stayed home to acclimate themselves to the Rockies' 11,000-ft. altitude, and practice on Vail's dry, powdery snow -- quite unlike the hard-packed Alpine surfaces.

"The French and Austrians ski all the time," explained a U.S. ski official, "but our boys and girls are building up for this one race."

In the downhill, while U.S. skiers soared birdlike off the bumps, provoking "ahs" from fans (and losing time), the Austrians kept their skis in the snow. Heini Messner, an auto mechanic from Gries am Brenner, won the race -- with three other Austrians and a Frenchman strung out behind. The star of the meet was France's Jean Claude Killy, 21, who showed why he is the best slalom skier in the world: cutting the gates so close that his sweater brushed the poles, Killy won both the special slalom and the giant slalom. The best the U.S. could do was third in the special, fourth in the giant. It was left to Jean Saubert to salvage a shred of honor--a tie for first with France's Marielle Goitschel in the women's giant slalom. Sighed U.S. Coach Bob Beattie:

"We've worked hard, and we've pro gressed. But not enough."

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