(5 of 5)
And the Olympics? One of the all-event skiers should win the combined, which counts the results of a shortened downhill and a separate slalom. On form, specialists should win the rest. Never mind form. At Crans-Montana last year, specialists should have dominated. But Zurbriggen won two golds and two silvers, and Girardelli, hurt, won two silvers, and a gold in the combined.
At Calgary the combined and the super-G have been added for the first time to the downhill, slalom and GS. Will Zurbriggen sweep five golds? No. That is so much more unlikely than when Killy, in '68, or Toni Sailer, in '56, swept all three events that it does not bear talking about. Tomba, a big, laughing fellow whose name is a drumbeat as his countrymen cheer him on, should take the slalom.
Pirmin, after his two World Cup downhill wins, looks good in the downhill, with Teammate Muller or Canada's Boyd as second choice. That leaves the GS, super-G and combined. Give Pirmin one gold and a silver and Girardelli, if he recovers from a bruising fall in late January, at least one medal. Give them all fat endorsements, glossy cars and TV contracts. Give the Larchenhof a try in 30 years; the tall fellow with the leather knickers, the pipe and the pointy nose, they say, still skis fairly well.