SKIING / BOB LOCHNER : A Good Season for Team Tomba but Not for Italy

Not all Italians are overjoyed with the success of Team Tomba on the World Cup ski circuit this season.

Take Fabio DeCrignis, who finished third in the slalom last Sunday at Aspen--three places ahead of his alleged teammate, Alberto Tomba.

Asked how Italy’s other racers feel about Tomba’s insistence on training separately, with a private coach, trainer-nutrition expert, masseuse and ski technician, the 20-year-old DeCrignis said: “It is a very bad thing, because the younger talents on the team need a way to compare their performance in training, to judge what it really means.

“When I have the best time in our team’s practice, it doesn’t really mean anything because I don’t know how good it is compared to the very best, like Tomba. So, it is not a good thing for the team to have him off by himself.

“When a ski nation has a great talent such as Tomba, they should keep it and have him working with the team, for the support of all the racers. Maybe that might not be a good thing for Alberto now, but it would be vital for the Italian team.”

Tomba, who has already clinched the World Cup giant slalom title, said he merely decided to train “with a group of friends,” including Gustavo Thoeni, a four-time World Cup champion who coaches Tomba and nobody else on the Italian team.

“Also, Giorgio d’Urbano organizes excellent exercises to keep me in shape and advises me on my nutritional needs,” Tomba said. “This year, I feel stronger than ever. I’ve become used to training by myself, and I’m more efficient than before.”

Of course, Tomba is not the first to isolate himself from his national team. Phil and Steve Mahre trained and traveled by themselves in the early 1980s, occasionally letting one of the younger slalom specialists, such as John Buxman, tag along. But they did not have a complete entourage, just assistant coach Tom Kelly, who provided minimal liaison with the U.S. ski team and avoided messing up the twins’ style.

Sabine Ginther of Austria and Chantal Bournissen of Switzerland posted the fastest times in Thursday’s training runs for today’s World Cup women’s downhill on Vail’s International course.

In the morning run, Anbreja Potisk of Yugoslavia, a newcomer to World Cup competition, fell and broke her back. She was treated for compression fractures of her sixth and seventh vertebrae at Vail Valley Medical Center before being taken to St. Anthony Hospital in Denver, where doctors said she had feeling and movement of all her limbs.

Hilary Lindh of Juneau, Alaska, was second in the first run, Krista Schmidinger of Lee, Mass., third in the afternoon--a pair of performances that gave U.S. hopes a momentary boost.

A second downhill is scheduled Saturday, followed by a giant slalom Sunday. ESPN will televise the weekend races, delayed, at 3 p.m. each day.

At nearby Beaver Creek Wednesday:

--Retired speed skier Franz Weber, 34, and Austrian Elisabeth Kirchler, 27, won the Legends giant slalom.

--The Swiss women out-skied seven other teams to reach the final round of the Subaru America’s Challenge, which they then proceeded to win by defeating the United States in a series of parallel races.

Skiing Notes

The men in the Alpine “White Circus” will race in a pair of downhills and a super-G today through Sunday at Lake Louise, Canada. . . . Newly crowned overall champion Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg and runner-up Alberto Tomba of Italy will skip the speed events and prepare for the World Cup finals March 20-24 at Waterville Valley, N.H.

Bernhard Knauss of Austria widened his lead in the U.S. Pro Tour standings by sweeping last weekend’s races at Pico, Vt. The troupe moves to Loon Mountain, N.H., today through Sunday, then will head west for its next-to-last stop of the season at Mammoth Mountain.

Jimmie Heuga’s Mazda Ski Express will chug into Mammoth today and on down to Snow Summit Saturday. . . . Bear Mountain will play host to the Jeep National Ski Club Challenge Far West Regional Championships Saturday.

The storms sweeping through the West have left excellent skiing conditions from California to Utah and Colorado, as well as in adjacent states along the way. . . . Even Sun Valley, Ida., which has been in kind of a “black hole” for snow most of the season, is reporting depths of 33 to 47 inches.

Vail is in great shape with 60 to 83 inches of powder and packed powder, as is Aspen with 67 to 72 inches. . . . Other monster bases (in inches) include Alpine Meadows, 88; Mammoth, 84; Mt. Bachelor, Ore., 114; Big Mountain, Mont., 61 to 162; Taos, N.M., 97; Snowbird, Utah, 111, and Whistler-Blackcomb, Canada, 120.