Erika Hess Leaves Them With Slalom to Remember

After the first of two runs in the women’s slalom Saturday, the Austrians had Tamara McKinney and Erika Hess right where they wanted them.

McKinney, the United States’ only real hope for a gold medal in the biennial World Alpine Ski Championships, had fallen and gone down in flames, right out of the competition.

Hess, who is tied for second place behind McKinney in the season-long World Cup slalom standings, had recorded only the third-fastest time and was the lone Swiss woman left in the race after three of her teammates were eliminated by either spills or missed gates.

There were two Austrians ahead of Hess--Roswitha Steiner and Monika Maierhofer--and another Austrian, Karin Buder, behind her.

If ever the nation of Mozart and Waldheim appeared to be finally ready to grab some gold here, this was it, in the ninth of 10 races scheduled for the 15-day carnival that ends today.

But at the top of the second course, Hess was thinking: “I have nothing to lose. I can go all out and try to have a perfect run. Here I am, in my last big race before retiring, and I want to go out a winner.” Or so she said later.

In the reversed starting order for the second run, Buder came down ahead of Hess and was slow, failing to improve her position.

Then, the Swiss woman made her perfect run, stopping the timer in 46.51 seconds to move into the lead with a total time of 1:33.30. She raised her poles in exultation, slid to a stop and turned to watch the Austrians try to deliver their 1-2 knockout punch.

First, Maierhofer fired and fell back, missing a gate and skiing off the course. The predominantly Swiss crowd cheered, waved flags and began setting up an ear-splitting din with their huge cowbells. They were joined by a small but almost equally noisy contingent of Yugoslavs, whose Mateja Svet was in second place at 1:34.39.

Out of the start came Steiner, skiing smoothly--perhaps too smoothly. When her intermediate time was flashed, it was only the 10th fastest, .97 of a second behind the leader. The cowbells clanged, rising to a crescendo as she continued through the gates and across the finish line in a plodding 48.09.

In almost the same instant, her total of 1:33.55 popped into second place on the leader board and Hess leaped into the air, landing in the arms of her coaches.

Steiner, who led Hess by a seemingly comfortable 1.33 seconds after the first run, admitted later that she may have skied too cautiously to avoid potential mishap. “When you are ahead, it is hard to know how fast to ski,” she said. “You can’t take every risk. I think it is easier to be behind, so you can go for it.”

Svet was dropped into the bronze, her third medal of the week. Previously, the 18-year-old native of Ljubljana was second in the giant slalom and third in the super-G.

Her cheering section, here for the weekend from Maribor, Yugoslavia, was led by six men dressed in bizarre carnival costumes of brown, furry suits and feathered, bird-like helmets, cowbells attached to their waists. They danced around the finish area with Svet on their shoulders, waving their nation’s red-starred, red-white-and-blue flag. For the pixieish-looking Hess, it was the second gold medal of the world championships. She also won the women’s combined. The 1982 and ’84 World Cup champion won’t turn 25 until next month, but she said this is definitely her last time around.

“I thought about leaving last spring,” she said, “but I found new motivation and strength, and I have been happy this season. The fact that I was going to retire made me want to win all the more. Now, it is time to leave; 10 years of skiing at this level are enough.”

McKinney, America’s World Cup champion in ‘83, is also 24, but she plans to keep on racing through next year’s Winter Olympics at Calgary, Canada.

Her jinx in Olympic and world championship competition--she has managed only a pair of bronzes in the combined event--continued on her first run Saturday as she hooked a gate about halfway down the 55-gate course and crashed.

McKinney was OK physically, but according to Chip Woods, coach of the U.S. women’s team, she had been hurt the night before by some unkind remarks about her 18th-place finish in Thursday’s giant slalom.

“Someone--it was not a coach or a racer but someone outside the team--upset her emotionally with those comments,” Woods said. “I’m not sure it affected her skiing that much but it didn’t help. She’s been around a long time. All you can say about her fall is, ‘That’s ski racing.’

“Actually, she was in a happy frame of mind otherwise. Her mother (Frances McKinney) has been here the whole time, and her brother, Steve, flew in Friday. She’ll be fine for her next World Cup race.”

Only one of the four American entries, Eva Twardokens, was able to finish both runs of the race, which started in a snowstorm and ended in a drizzle. She was ninth in 1:35.59.

So, it appears that the United States will leave here with just one medal, McKinney’s bronze in the women’s combined. Felix McGrath is the main American hope in the men’s slalom today, but realistically, a top-15 finish would be considered a success.

Switzerland, meanwhile, has skied off with 14 medals, more than half of the 27 awarded so far. Included in its total are 8 of the 9 golds--all but the men’s combined, which was won by Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg.

It’s no wonder that around here, they’re starting to call this little ski meet the Swiss National Championships.