TOMBAMANIA!

By JAMES WALSH

Arturo Coruzzo leads two lives. In his workaday world, the 33-year-old Verona bank clerk tries to be the picture of decorum. There was a weekend this month, however, when he went just a bit crazy. Two Saturdays ago, he stood halfway up a Swiss ski slope yelling himself hoarse with cries of ``Forza, Alberto!'' As the object of his cheers cannonaded down the run, Corruzo dashed to the finish line and jumped the fence. Too late. His hero, rushed by a mob of other brandy-fueled fanatics, ran for protection. Was a blurred whoosh-past by Alberto Tomba worth the $500 trip? Assolutamente! ``He doesn't slow down even when he can afford to,'' Coruzzo vouched. ``That's why they call him La Bomba.''

What the Bomb can also be called these days is the most explosive comeback story in skiing. At 28, following an unsatisfactory showing in last year's Winter Olympics--he took home only a silver in the slalom--the hard-driving, hard-playing Tomba is once again the Caesar of the Snows, the toast of Italy and many places beyond. His thrilling come-from-behind win at Adelboden in Switzerland marked his third giant-slalom triumph of the season and his 10th win overall in the current World Cup series. He is so far ahead of the competition that the Cup already seems to be a customized Tomba Tumbler--though the superstitious superstar is quick to reject such ideas. After Adelboden, he hedged: ``Even if the victories boost my morale, it gets tiring. I'm not sure I can keep it up.''

Aw, c'mon, Alberto. If this winter's campaign has proved anything, it is that the former bad boy from Bologna is not only a smarter bomb but also one with laser-guided determination. His image--that of a fun-loving playboy--belies the Zenlike, almost scary concentration he has brought to bear in amassing 43 career victories over nine years. Although Tomba competes only in slalom and giant-slalom races--he does not ski the downhill, super-giant slalom or combined races, the other three ingredients in World Cup competition--he has made his two events a near monopoly. His heft helps, no doubt, but championship form comes more from his total focus on building speed and calculating the tightest turns around the gates. ``He doesn't make the mistakes he used to, like leaning back on his skis,'' says Roberto Della Torre, deputy editor of the Italian monthly Sciare. ``Compared with the competition, Tomba's skiing on another planet.''

At Adelboden, Tomba initially had trouble finding his rhythm and finished the first of his two runs 0.34 sec. behind Norway's Harald Strand Nilsen. Early in the second run, he lagged slightly behind his pal Jure Kosir of Slovenia. Then, under the eyes of 5.5 million Italian TV watchers, La Bomba proved as good as his name. He blasted into the steep final leg and cut his arcs sharply in his gate-crashing style. He ended with a composite time of 2:21.96, 0.07 sec. faster than Kosir.

The Tombamaniacs went nuts--further nuts, that is. The din of their air horns sounded like a Swiss national-emergency call. At least half a dozen fan clubs, most of them from the vicinity of their idol's native Bologna, follow him from race to race these days amid the usual shriek packs of star-struck teenage girls. Tomba often gratifies them by performing somersaults at the finish line and, as a seal of success, placing a smooch on his dog, a white husky named, fittingly, Yukon. Is Alberto a god? One supporter arrived in Adelboden prepared: he had recorded what was to become the skier's total season wins to date on two tablets, like the Ten Commandments.

That record is impressive in anyone's book, or tablet. A career high for Tomba, it marks conquests in three of the five giant-slalom meets he has entered this season and in all seven slalom competitions. The 1,050 points to his World Cup credit virtually freeze out all trailers in the field. Second-ranked Kosir, 480 points behind, had only praise for his friend at Adelboden. Marveled the 22-year-old Slovenian: ``He skied the last five gates flawlessly.''

Boosting the leader's pole position have been runs of bad luck for the competition. Europe's mild winter has made mush out of slopes for downhill racing, in which Tomba never competes. As a boy, he was warned against that risky business by his mother--sound advice it may be, for injuries have also dogged his rivals. If there is a cloud on Tomba's horizon, it is Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, a five-time world champ. Girardelli finished 18th at Adelboden, but his third-place Cup total of 563 points still gives him a theoretical shot at the title. He has 12 races left, while Tomba has just four: two this weekend in Furano, Japan, before a season finale on the Italian's home ground in Bormio. Unlike Tomba, Girardelli competes in all five World Cup disciplines, thus in more races.

The schedule still gives the Italian a chance to blow past the all-time season record of 13 wins posted in 1979 by Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden. Tomba's comeback is a bottomless source of marvel for his adoring fans. His Olympic disappointments last year in Lillehammer, Norway, led the three-time Winter Games gold medalist to consider retiring. His father, among others, talked him out of it, Tomba says. Last summer he trained intensively in Argentina and Chile, shedding the between-competition flab that at times has made La Bomba look more like an overgrown bambino. He returned in harder shape and, with age catching up on him, more determined than ever.

Coming of age is probably the biggest element in his success, in fact. His coach, former Italian champ Gustavo Thoeni, swears that his restless charge has settled down: ``I'm not saying he goes to bed at 10 p.m., but usually by midnight, yes.'' Many followers also believe that his engagement to Martina Colombari, a 20-year-old former Miss Italy, has cooled Tomba's boogie-all- night habits at resort discos. True? Says Tomba: ``They seem to forget that I've been with her for three years.'' Still, he acknowledges being ``just a little more serious.''

Tell that to the Tombamaniacs. Notwithstanding the Ten Commandments tribute, he remains more Apollo than Jehovah, inspiring swoons from female admirers wherever he goes. Among a dozen Swiss girls standing enraptured near the finish line at Adelboden was Karin Brugger, a 13-year-old from Frutigen. Like her companions, she had painted her cheeks in the Italian national colors of green, white and red. ``He's fast, really fast!'' she exclaimed between yelps for Tomba's attention. These days, though, the wine-loving champion is concentrating more on avoiding mistakes on the slopes. ``Let's wait for a defeat to celebrate,'' he said. ``Otherwise, we'd be drunk every day.'' Lucky for Tomba's morale, his fans refuse to listen. Reported by Greg Burke/Adelboden

With reporting by GREG BURKE/ADELBODEN