Viva La Bomba!

By MARGOT HORNBLOWER VAL D''ISERE

The air was frigid, sun splashed, and electric with suspense. Above the kaleidoscopic crowd waved the banner of the "Tombamania Club of Pisa" with its crudely drawn Leaning Tower and its message: GO FOR IT, ALBERTO! Horns honked. Cowbells clanged. In the opening minutes of the giant slalom ski race, a Swiss racer grabbed first place. But the pilgrims from Bologna held high their sign: BIG ALBERTO, GIVE US A MEDAL. Seconds later, a Norwegian flashed to the top of the scoreboard. Balloons soared. Agitated claques from San Lazzaro, Sestriere and Vidiciatico shook their posters: WHEN YOU'RE ALBERTO, YOU'RE EVERYTHING. Now, a Luxembourg champion was winning by a hair. But just behind, the man known as "La Bomba" was gathering himself at the start house high on the glittering mountain. The crowd sucked in its breath, conscious that a few hundredths of a second would mark the difference between history and humiliation.

Never before had ski racing, a sport dominated by monosyllabic mountain men, seen the likes of Alberto Tomba, the flamboyant Bolognese flatlander who at 21 captured two gold medals at the Calgary Olympics. Now, four years later, he was trying to repeat the feat, having boasted to the press -- in jest -- that he had changed his training regimen from "sleeping with three women until 5 a.m." to "sleeping with five women until 3 a.m." Such bravado carried onto the ski course might make it easier to win but, oh, so much harder to lose. Clad in turquoise spandex, the racer who once called himself "the messiah of skiing" swiveled through 47 gates in 1:02.41, or .19 sec. faster than his closest rival. Tomba became the first Alpine contestant ever to win two consecutive Olympic golds in the same event. Even the triple-gilded Jean- Claude Killy had limited himself to one Olympic year. "From the top, I could see thousands of people along the course," Tomba recalled later. "I felt their emotion. They were yelling, 'Hop! Hop!' pushing me through gate after gate. Many thought I couldn't do it -- but here I am."

On Saturday the supercharged show-off followed a mediocre first run with a spectacular final display. But he failed to win a fourth gold, finishing only .28 sec. behind Norway's Finn Christian Jagge in the slalom. Tomba nonetheless declared himself delighted with his silver, and the crowds were delighted with him. The Bolognese had enlivened the Games with serendipity and irresistible schmaltz. After his first triumph, Tomba sank to his knees in the arrival area, his arms outstretched, his head flung back in ecstasy. Then as the roar of the crowd grew, he rose, balanced his skis upright in the palm of his hand and pranced over to his fans. There, amid faces painted in the green, red and white stripes of the Italian flag, a banner greeted him: ALBERTO, THANK YOU FOR EXISTING.

His success made Tomba one of the few world-class skiers to withstand the burden of Olympian expectations inflated by hyperventilating sportscasters. While Petra Kronberger, the Salzburg superstar, reaped her second gold medal in the women's slalom and Marc Girardelli, the Austrian-born loner who skis for Luxembourg, won two silvers, this year's Games were otherwise a tragic letdown for proved achievers. Switzerland's Franz Heinzer and Vreni Schneider, Germany's Markus Wasmeier, Austria's Hubert Strolz and Sabine Ginther -- all melted in the spotlight. Instead, a crop of dazzling youngsters rose to the podiums. Norway's 20-year-old Kjetil Andre Aamodt, a spitting image of the cartoon adventurer Tintin, captured a gold and a bronze. Aamodt, whose previous best was a second place in a world championship, had been hospitalized in November for mononucleosis and lost 24 lbs. If he fought his way back, he said, it was partly because, unlike better-known stars, "I didn't have any pressure on me, except from myself."

Another profile in courage was that of Italy's 21-year-old Deborah Compagnoni, who seized a gold in the women's super giant slalom after recovering from two knee operations and stomach surgery in which 22 in. of her intestine had been removed. Dubbed "Tombagnoni" by the Italian press for her aggressive skiing style, she had never finished higher than fourth in a World Cup race. "I've had a lot of bad luck in my life," she said. "I never thought I'd win." Then only a day later, when her megawatt smile and shy demeanor had hardly disappeared from the TV screens, her pitiful cries of pain were captured by a video crew as she crashed into a gate and skidded to the side of the giant slalom. The diagnosis: a torn ligament in her left knee that will knock her out of competition for at least six months.

Racers from the Alpine countries managed to sweep up the majority of medals, but the traditionally dominant countries were sorely challenged by the likes of 21-year-old Pernilla Wiberg, Sweden's first Alpine gold winner since 1980, and 20-year-old Annelise Coberger, whose silver win made her New Zealand's first Olympic Winter medalist ever. The U.S. captured its second Alpine silver last week when veteran Diann Roffe tied with Austria's Anita Wachter in the giant slalom. A world championship gold medalist at 17, Roffe had been unable to handle the fame. But after a deep slump and several injuries, she had pulled herself together and trained hard over several years. Now 24, she said, "The Olympic medal makes it all worth it." A similar weary joy was voiced by Spain's Blanca Fernandez Ochoa, a 28-year-old regular on the World Cup tour. Twenty years ago at the Sapporo Games, her older brother Francisco won gold in the slalom. Blanca, close to the top but never quite making it in 11 years on the grueling international circuit, had won no medal in the past three Olympics. Now with a bronze in slalom, she said, "I can forget the failures that have haunted me. You cannot imagine the enormous work of an entire life that went into this."

In brittle sunshine or in driving snow, the Games weren't mere games for those who competed. Tomba could joke about how he plans to star in Hollywood, courtesy of his new acquaintance, Sylvester Stallone. But his stalwart fans know there's more to his success than glitz, having followed Tomba's post- Calgary blues, his faltering in two world championships and his reconstruction under the severe tutelage of former Olympian Gustavo Thoeni. "I fought to win," said the husky Bolognese. "I gave the best of myself." Whether for giants like Tomba, upstarts like Aamodt or veterans like Fernandez Ochoa, the glamour has come with its fantasies and its fireworks, but only after years of grit.