World Alpine Ski Championships : After Storm Blows Over, Walliser Blows Away Women’s Downhill Field

Had it been a football game, the margin would have been four touchdowns; a baseball game, 10 runs, and in basketball, about 35 points.

Maria Walliser’s 1 1/2-second victory in the women’s downhill at the World Alpine Ski Championships Sunday, her second straight title in this event, was that one-sided.

“I just had a perfect run,” she said of her 1-minute 46.50-second burst down the 1.6-mile Vail Mountain course, during which she reached speeds in excess of 68 m.p.h.

“Everything came together. I had good mental preparation. I believed in myself and had confidence in my service technician and in my (skis). When I saw that snow was still falling last night and that it was wintertime again, I knew this would be my race.”

For the first eight starters, however, the race appeared to belong to Canadian Karen Percy, who came down No. 2 and put up a time of 1:48 flat for the others to shoot at.

When Walliser’s Swiss teammate and arch-rival, Michela Figini, the No. 8 racer, fired and fell short, Percy said: “I was very happy, but I knew Maria was still to come (as No. 9).”

Walliser, who also won the downhill gold medal in the world championships the last time they were held, at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in 1987, not only shot down Percy, she blew her out of the snow--and into the silver medal.

But as usual, Walliser probably took her greatest delight from the fact that while she was winning, Figini finished out of the money, way down in eighth place.

The two are ski racing’s version of Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan. They are been on the same team, they’ve both scored big victories--and they dislike each other.

It all goes back at least to the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, where Figini, then 17, came out of nowhere, which is what some of her countrymen call the Italian part of Switzerland, to win the downhill by a bare .05 of a second over the more celebrated Walliser.

The rivalry became intense and bitter as:

--Figini won the World Cup overall titles in 1985 and ‘88, as Walliser finished third and seventh, and also took the downhill gold medal in the ’85 world championships at Bormiio, Italy, with Walliser placing sixth.

--Walliser won the World Cup overall titles in 1986 and ‘87, as Figini finished sixth and fifth, and also took the downhill gold in the ’87 world championships, with Figini placing second.

Says Figini: “Maria and I are not friends. There are many reasons, but the one that matters is that we both want to be champions too much.”

Walliser, for her part, agrees with this assessment and adds: “For a long time, I thought only about how much I wanted to beat Michela, and it had a bad effect on everything I did. Then I realized I simply must try to do my best. Now, Michela faces the same attitude problem about me.”

Walliser, born in the German-Swiss village of Mosnang 25 years ago, is considered by the chauvinistic European media to be one of the “glamour girls” on the Alpine “White Circus.” “Everybody loves Maria,” said Figini, her Italian-Swiss minority complex surfacing. The same European media describe the bouncy Figini as “cute” but have not rated her as potential Hollywood material, as they have Walliser.

And it’s true, Walliser said. “Two years ago, after Crans-Montana, I was offered a movie role by a Swiss film-maker, but first I must finish my skiing career, before I go on to my next life. So, for the moment, there is no Hollywood, no film career for me.”

As for racing another year, Walliser said: “I still believe what I thought at the start of this season, that I cannot really do anything better than skiing. I enjoy it. I am not 100% certain, but I think, yes, I will (continue to race).”

First, there is the matter of these world championships, in which Walliser will race against Figini twice more, in the super-G and the giant slalom. Then, there’s the remainder of the World Cup circuit, on which three more downhills remain.

Although the rivals both trail teammate Vreni Schneider, a slalom specialist, in the overall standings, Figini holds a catchable 101-82 lead over Walliser in the downhill table. Of the five World Cup downhills held so far this season, Figini has won three, Walliser the other two.

Walliser got off to a slow start in December because she was still testing the knee that she injured in a spill at Aspen, Colo., last March. Billy Kidd, who was a CBS-TV commentator for the first downhill race this season at Val d’Isere, France, said Sunday: “It was obvious that Maria was being very cautious in the downhill there. But she showed no sign of that today. I’d compare her run favorably with Franz Klammer’s victory in the 1976 Winter Olympics.”

Neither Walliser nor Figini was a factor in the Olympic downhill last February at Calgary, Walliser finishing fourth and Figini ninth, although Maria did win bronze medals in the giant slalom and the combined.

Characteristically, Walliser did not appear to be upset by her performance there, possibly because she has achieved some measure of independent wealth through her skiing contracts and her fitness-studio business, which she and her fiancee, Guido Anesini, operate out of their base at Chur, Switzerland.

In other words, she is racing for the fun of it, and she said that in the starting gate Sunday: “I was comfortable because I knew that it was easier for me to be faster on (fresh) snow, and also I already had two gold medals (from the downhill and super-G in ‘87), which nobody could take away from me.”

The course was, indeed, softer than it was during training runs. More than 2 feet of snow fell in the preceding 48 hours, but the sun was out, and a fair-sized crowd of 2,700 braved sub-zero cold to watch the race from the finish area.

Of course, it was colder for the racers, and although not all of them reached Walliser’s top speed, one can imagine the wind-chill factor at even 60 m.p.h.

Percy, downhill bronze medalist at Calgary, was about all that Americans had to cheer for, as a fellow North American. Hilary Lindh was the top U.S. finisher, tying for 15th place. Pam Fletcher, who won a World Cup downhill here in 1986, came in 24th.

The surprising bronze medalist was Karin Dedler of West Germany, who was only .01 of a second slower than Percy, and the Japanese achieved a breakthrough when Emi Kawabata came in fifth, just behind Switzerland’s Heidi Zurbriggen.

Today, Heidi’s big brother, Pirmin, will step into the spotlight when he faces off with teammate Peter Mueller, Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli, Austria’s Helmut Hoeflehner and the others in the men’s downhill, which was supposed to have been held Saturday, before the blizzard blew through town.

That storm, however, didn’t do half the damage that Maria Walliser inflicted on the best female skiers in the world during little more than 1 3/4 minutes on a dazzling Sunday in the Colorado Rockies.