King of the Slopes

Skiing had rarely seen anything like it: in three weeks Guy Perillat, 20, had won three international championships--at Switzerland's Wengen, Austria's Kitzbuehel and France's Megeve. Last week, as he returned from his triumphant tour to his native La Clusaz (pop. 1,200, including about 100 Perillats) in the French Alps, the whole town turned out to greet and acclaim the grinning, bull-necked man who is beyond dispute the king of the world's slopes.

Eskimo Pie. France's Perillat was all but born to his crown. His mother used to ski back and forth between La Clusaz and her family's Alpine farmhouse; his father ran a La Clusaz ski lift. At four, Guy got his first pair of skis for Christmas. Even before he could fasten them on by himself, he could use them well enough to tackle the steepest and most treacherous slopes. From the start, he aimed at becoming a champion. Recalls one townsman: "Guy seemed to realize even before he could reason that he would have to strengthen his body. When he was nine or ten, I used to see him running all over the countryside at 6 o'clock on summer mornings. In the winter, before every competition, Guy always had to go early to study the slope. He even took notes, meticulously marking each bump and danger spot."

At twelve, Perillat won the Coupe Perrier for junior skiers, and at 14, after quitting school to join the French national team, he won the junior Alpine championship. "I regret not having continued my studies," he says. "But you can't do everything--and I like what I'm doing just fine." Last year at the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, he was considered a strong contender for the slalom but was off form, finishing sixth; in the downhill race, won by Teammate Jean Vuarnet, he did better, winning a bronze medal. One of his problems seemed to be his mental attitude. Admitting that he is "often obsessed by a fear of falling," Perillat grew too tense during "that horrible moment five minutes before the start of a race, when you think that every breath will be your last." But no longer: "Another year of training has polished my style, and I've gained greater emotional stability. I'm much less contracted before the race than last year. I used to freeze up like an Eskimo Pie."

Egg Position. Drafted into the French army last April, Perillat was sent to Algeria. But he was back with the first snows as a member of the Alpine troops, trained by Honore Bonnet, who by no coincidence is also coach of the French national ski team. It was Bonnet, along with Olympic Gold Medalist Vuarnet, who developed the "egg position" used by Perillat and the other members of the French team. The position, a sort of high, shoulder-down crouch, is so tiring to main tain that the French team members must take special exercises to build up the quadriceps muscles in their thighs. Its advantages: a properly low center of gravity, better aerodynamics. And for Guy Perillat, who hits flat-out speeds of up to 70 m.p.h. in downhill races, aero dynamics are important.

Under Bonnet's coaching, Perillat took the Werigen, Kitzbuehel and Megeve com petitions, three of Europe's biggest, with apparent ease, each time winning both the downhill race and the combined-events championship. His wins have made him a French national hero -- a fact that Guy Perillat accepts calmly. Says he: "There's a time in life for everything. If my time for success is now. it's now. Everything else will take its place."

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