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Marolt: "We have no excuses any more. What we don't have are enough good athletes who are willing to do the hard work it takes to become a champion. But we've got a few, and they're the match of any skiers in the world." The best of the few will attempt to reverse American fortunes at Lake Placid.
PHIL MAHRE. His right ankle is held together by a metal plate and four screws, yet he still hustles down mountains at speeds faster than a parachutist in free fall. He is, quite simply, the best American man ever to put on skis in international competition. Since the launching in 1967 of the World Cup circuit—a four-month-long series of 15 meets—U.S. men have won only 15 races. Mahre, 22, has won eight of them, and his twin brother Steve has won one. Last year Phil was second in the overall World Cup standings when he went to Lake Placid for a meet. While he was pounding down the hill in the slalom, the tip of his right ski caught one of the gates, and he went down, his ankle shattered. His skiing season was over. Unable to compete in the final three events, he finished third in the World Cup.
Three of the seven screws installed to repair the ankle have been removed, but the rest conduct cold, and he must use a heated boot. Nonetheless, he is now skiing as well as ever. Says Marolt: "Even I didn't think it was really, truly possible, but he's done it." Mahre fought back to peak form by the painful expedient of refusing to limp. "If you let yourself limp, it gets to be a habit. If you don't limp, then you won't favor your leg. So I just told myself that no matter how much it was killing me, I wouldn't give in."
The same tenacity makes him one of the toughest skiers on the mountain. He started skiing at two in the deep snow of the Cascade Mountains, where his parents ran a ski resort at White Pass, Wash. A gifted athlete, he has made himself into a downhill racer, even though the slalom and giant slalom are his natural events. In an age of specialization, he has become a genuine contender in all events. Can he win a gold at Lake Placid? Says Mahre: "So many things can be a factor. The snow, the weather, is it warm so that waxing is a factor, or cold and icy? Will you fall? Will someone else just have an incredible run? All I can do is run my race, run it the best I can, and we'll see after everybody gets to the bottom."
CINDY NELSON. She is 23 now, and it has been nearly a decade since she burst on the skiing scene. At 15, a native of Lutsen, Minn., she was the top U.S. woman downhiller, tuning up for the Sapporo Olympics with startling performances on the World Cup circuit. Then, less than a month before the Games opened, she took a dreadful fall on Switzerland's treacherous Grindelwald course and was laid up for months with a dislocated hip. She won the bronze in the '76 Olympics in the downhill. This is her last Olympics, and to win a gold she will have to beat out the likes of Switzerland's Marie-Theres Nadig. "I don't know how long I'll ski after Lake Placid," says Nelson, "but it won't be another four years. I've lived ten months of every year out of a suitcase since I was 15. I've got a home and a dog, and I'd like to do some cooking."