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Sunday, Feb. 8, 1998 Shiga Kogen, Japan
A Giant Day For Slalom
Then there was round two. Grayness lay us under siege. Fog poured down the course and snow spit down out of the soup that encompassed us. Two riders made it down before the onslaught. Then came the inevitable course hold. After ten minutes with suspect change, the race resumed. The crowd turned their attention to the big monitor because, unlike the course, it could be seen. Now it was a guessing game. The crowd seemed content with any rider who came through the soup alive and they cheered equally for all. Due to the barrage of horns and howls from all directions, every rider was smiling by the time he took off his board.
Chris Klug slipped out on several occasions, pushing him to sixth, and our young fearless leader Jasey Jay couldn't get past the fifth gate without difficulty. After a slide out at the top of the course that almost threw him backwards down the course, Anderson regained and maintained his pride by completing the run. So Ross Rebagliati became the first gold medal winner not by default, not by luck, but by overcoming adversity when others couldn't. His lead was followed by Italy's Thomas Prugger, who took the first silver and Switzerland's Ueli Kestenholz who took the first bronze. Tomorrow the women will take the same stage. Today proved that anything can happen with your one Olympic run and the girl's field is even deeper than the men's. If today was any indication, the women's GS could spell Olympic dreams for the hungry.
Hans and Brent, Zone Team East, adopting new religions for The Mountain Zone
1.Ross Rebagliati, CAN 2:03.96 2. Thomas Prugger (Italy) 2:03.98 3. Ueli Kestenholz (Switzerland) 2:04.08 4. Dieter Krassnig (Austria) 2:04.33 5. Matthieu Bozzetto (France) 2:04.57 6. Christopher Klug (U.S.) 2:05.25 7. Martin Freinademetz (Austria) 2:05.34 8. Maxence Idesheim (France) 2:05.52 9. Dieter Happ (Austria) 2:07.05 10. Thedo Remmelink (Netherlands) 2:07.25 11. Willi Trakofler (Italy) 2:07.30 12. Christophe Segura (France) 2:08.86 13. Elmar Messner (Italy) 2:09.41 14. Dieter Moherndl (Germany) 2:10.03 15. Mike Kildevaeld (Denmark) 2:10.42 16. Jasey-Jay Anderson (Canada) 2:11.33 17. Mike Jacoby (U.S.) 2:11.80 18. Stephen Copp (Sweden) 2:11.89 19. Lukasz Starowicz (Poland) 2:12.31 20. Karl Frenademez (Italy) 2:15.95 21. Mariano Lopez (Argentina) 2:31.31 Did Not Finish Nicolas Conte (France) Richard Richardsson (Sweden) Markos Chatzikyriakakis (Greece) Sigi Grabner (Austria) Bernd Kroschewski (Germany) Darren Chalmers (Canada) Zeke Steggall (Australia) Mark Fawcett (Canada) Stergios Pappos (Greece) Fadri Mosca (Switzerland) Gilles Jaquet (Switzerland) Andre Gruetter (Switzerland) Adam Hostetter (U.S.)
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