Flying the Airplane

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 dived toward a hard-packed bump, which tossed the skier into the air just as she hit a 90DEG left turn dubbed "Airplane Turn."

On the Wash board. Looking like a small lady Martian in her white crash helmet and goggles, New Hampshire's round-cheeked, chunky Penny Pitou, 21, was the first skier to jab her poles into the snow and set off. Penny plummeted through the schuss, hit the bump at such a speed that she was forced to the washboard surface on the outside of the turn. For one frantic second, she tottered on one ski, then recovered control to flash home in 1:38.6.

Standing at the bottom of the course, Penny sweated out her rivals' times, wincing, covering her eyes, wringing her hands and staving off newsmen: "I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to talk to anyone!" For the runs of six other girls, Penny's time stood. Then a clerk in a West German ski factory began her run.

Heidi Biebl, shy and solid (5 ft. 3 in., 132 lbs.), had been almost unnoticed in the bustling Olympic Village, training so diligently that she barely bothered to celebrate her 19th birthday three days before the race. In perfect control, Heidi sacrificed some speed by beginning her turn two-thirds of the way down the schuss, but shaved the corner so closely that she missed the main heave of the bump, tamed Airplane Turn. Her final time beat Penny's by a full second.

Last Hopes. With that, U.S. prestige rode on the shoulders of Vermont's svelte Betsy Snite, 21, back in form after a knee injury earlier this season and second only to Penny on the proud U.S. team. Hunched low over her skis, cutting corners like a man, Betsy looked the fastest of the day as she shot out of the schuss. Then she hit the bump. The impact slammed her into Airplane's bank so hard that she caught an edge, arched through a double cartwheel, fell on a ski point and lay still.

Going flat out to save the day, California's Linda Meyers, 22, sprawled in the snow in almost exactly the same spot. New Hampshire's Joan Hannah, 20, arms flailing wildly, made it all the way through Airplane only to crash into a control gate at turn's exit.

That did it. Penny dashed over to congratulate West Germany's Heidi, who exploded in one joyous round of hugs, then slipped away. Baffled newsmen, 1,000 strong, waited in vain for Heidi at a scheduled press conference. The new Olympic champion was taking a nap.

P: Switzerland's Roger Staub, 24, a care free, reckless skier who has been a perennial runner-up, poled and skated his way through the giant slalom, took it easily.

Tom Corcoran, 28-year-old graduate of the Harvard Business School, who was seeded 24th, exceeded all expectation by finishing fourth.

P: By unofficial scoring, Russia was off to an early overall lead, largely by sweeping the first four places in the women's 10-kilometer cross-country, in which the U.S. had no entries.

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