WINTER OLYMPICS : Men’s Downhill : Set Watches by Swiss Team, but There Are Some Sleepers in Field

They call it the downhill, but for everyone except the Swiss, it will be more like the Olympic men’s uphill race today on Mt. Allan.

Fortunately for the rest of the world, the little Alpine nation is permitted to enter only four skiers, but then there are only three medals, which doesn’t seem fair, either.

Saturday’s final training run certainly provided little encouragement to the Austrians, Italians or Canadians, all of whom rate as pretty fair country downhillers.

Four of the five fastest runs were recorded by racers from the country that has made an industry of keeping time. The top five:

1. Peter Mueller, Switzerland, 2:00.03.

2. Pirmin Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 2:00.26.

3. Franck Piccard, France, 2:00.97.

4. Franz Heinzer, Switzerland, 2:01.49.

5. Daniel Mahrer, Switzerland, 2:01.53.

Which is not to say that this is the way today’s race will wind up. The Frenchman may be feeling just a bit squeezed. And there’s no reason to think that Mueller, the 31-year-old war horse, and Zurbriggen, 25, probably the world’s best all-around skier, won’t find their placings reversed.

The old American golf technique of sandbagging is frequently employed during training by Alpine racers, who will slam-bang down the course until a couple of hundred yards from the finish, where they will apply the brakes and coast home with a deceptively slow time.

So, it would be no great shock, say, if 1980 Olympic champion Leonhard Stock or Anton Steiner or Guenther Mader should pick off a medal for Austria, or if Michael Mair or Danilo Sbardellotto should do likewise for Italy, or if Felix Belczyk or Rob Boyd should give the band a chance to play, “O, Canada.”

And then there’s always Marc Girardelli to take into account. The two-time World Cup overall champion, an Austrian who skis for Luxembourg, was seventh fastest Saturday, and he has the potential of matching Zurbriggen medal for medal in the five Alpine events.

However, it’s unlikely that anyone is betting the family chateau on any of these unlikely outcomes in the casinos at Monte Carlo.

Those knowledgeable about the somewhat esoteric sport of ski racing anticipate another shootout today between Zurbriggen, the 1985 World downhill champion, and Mueller, who won the gold medal last year in the World Championships at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, as Zurbriggen took the silver.

Zurbriggen, of course, is also a two-time World Cup overall champion and the tour’s current leader. He is reserved, respectful to his innkeeper parents when at home in Saas-Almagell, and deeply religious. “God does not forget me,” he is fond of saying, “and I do not forget Him.”

He is also rich, earning between $1 million and $2 million annually.

Mueller, who finished fourth in the 1980 Olympic downhill at Lake Placid, N.Y., and second to American Bill Johnson in the 1984 Games at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, carried the weight of Swiss ski fortunes on his broad shoulders long before the current super-team matured. And the pay was a lot less than Zurbriggen’s is now.

Blond and ruddy-faced, the Teutonic-looking Mueller follows a life style in sharp contrast to Zurbriggen’s. He likes to party and isn’t shy about expressing himself.

The stage for this “High Noon” re-enactment, the mountain at Nakiska, matches the men.

The two-mile-long downhill course gets right down to business at the start, falling away precipitously for about 325 yards, and for the first 25 seconds or so, racers must dig in their edges, one ski lower than the other, as they cling to the hill for survival while zig-zagging through the turns.

It is here that Zurbriggen can take command. Said Theo Nadig, the U.S. men’s downhill coach: “Pirmin is not afraid to completely commit himself mentally in a race. Instead of just skiing to survive, he will actually accelerate when going into a difficult turn.”

Mueller doesn’t exactly slow to a crawl on the steep, either, but he said: “It will be difficult to hold the line at the top.”

After this initial steep pitch, which is 79% at one point, the racers try to go into their aerodynamic tuck for a fleeting moment, but then they fly into a reverse “S” turn with a gradient of about 50% and must hang on again.

Finally, more than 50 seconds into this seemingly suicidal two-minute drill, they are able to crouch and let their skis run. However, it’s no freeway. They still must sail over a series of bumps, taking air at intervals as they bounce their way to the bottom and under the banner marking the finish line.

En route, they will average in excess of 60 m.p.h. and reach a top speed of about 85 m.p.h.--or more.

In short, it’s a course that could drive a ski racer to drink, or to pray.