The snow stopped as if on signal, Vice President Richard Nixon pronounced the official opening, some 700 athletes craned necks to watch 2,000 pigeons climb for the sky, and the eighth Winter Olympics, born in controversy and sustained at a cost of $13 million, began last week in California's Squaw Valley.
Out of sight, among the towering pines up on KT-22 Mountain, lay a short stretch of snow that was to prove the burial ground of the U.S.'s fondest hopes for its high-rated women skiers. Even to the casual eye, the setting was sinister enough: the steepest, straightest schuss on the course...
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