Another AJ Who Loves Speed : Winter Olympics: Kitt will try to repeat Johnson’s gold-medal performance in the downhill.

When AJ Kitt was little, everyone told him he was skiing too fast. So, he slowed down--until nobody was looking.

Two months from now, on Feb. 9, the world will be watching as he steps into the spotlight and tries to become the second American male skier to win a gold medal in the Olympic downhill.

His stage will be set in Val d’Isere, France, a ski resort somewhat more renowned than Swain Ski Center, N.Y., where Kitt first discovered the downhill.

“It was just one of the four events that I grew up skiing in,” he said Thursday by way of explaining his affinity for the race. “I liked it a lot because it was fun and fast, and it was a major challenge.

“I wasn’t a great downhiller when I first started out. I think it was just a lot of fun, because everyone always told me when I was skiing fast, as a kid and when I was just free skiing . . . they said, ‘Hey, slow down! Slow down!’ And that was an opportunity for me to go as fast as I wanted to, and do whatever I wanted to, without anybody telling me I couldn’t do it.”

Last Saturday, Kitt had his way with the elite of international ski racing when he gave the U.S. men’s team its first World Cup victory in nearly eight years--since Bill Johnson won the final downhill of the 1983-84 season, a few weeks after his Olympic surprise.

A comparison with the brash Johnson is inevitable.

After winning the classic Lauberhorn downhill at Wengen, Switzerland, in January of ‘84, “Bad Billy” from Van Nuys shocked Europe with his prediction that he would flat-out steal the gold medal at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, the following month. And, of course, he did just that.

Kitt, after winning this season’s opening downhill, took a different tack.

At first glance, it would seem that he might have an edge. He had already won at Val d’Isere, right? Site of the Olympic downhill? Right . . . and wrong.

Saturday’s race was held on the original course, not the one specially created for the 1992 Winter Olympics. The new Bellevarde course, designed by former Swiss racer Bernhard Russi with an assist from France’s Jean-Claude Killy, is not to Kitt’s liking. In a word, it’s slow , and Kitt hates to go slow.

“The main difference (between the old and new courses) is this: The one that we just raced on is a lot faster,” Kitt said. “It’s got downhill turns in it. It’s got some jumps in it. It’s fairly easy as downhills go in the World Cup, but it’s still a good downhill.

“The one in the Olympics is real slow. It’s got some really tight turns, short-radius turns, more characteristic of a super-G than a downhill. And it really doesn’t have very good rhythm to it.”

So, what does that mean for Kitt, who is attempting to compensate by skiing with shorter skis--220 centimeters instead of 230?

“Unless I change my style of skiing in the next month and a half or so, it’s going to mean not much success in the Olympics--unless they change the course, which is still a possibility,” he said. “The trail that the Olympic course is set on is a great trail. It’s got potential to have a fantastic downhill on it. But it (depends) on the way the course-setters decide to set the course.”

Kitt’s comments, made during a conference call from Val Gardena, Italy, might be interpreted as an attempt to relieve, in advance, some of the pressure on him to emulate Johnson, but he dismissed that suggestion.

“The only pressure that’s ever put on me is from myself,” he said. “And I limit that as much as possible. I’m not really thinking about the Olympics yet. I’ve got a race coming up in the next two days here, and a few more before the Olympics, so that’s the farthest thing from my mind right now.”

The second men’s downhill of the season is scheduled Saturday at Val Gardena, and Kitt is optimistic that perhaps he can get a streak going.

“I think my chances are pretty good,” he said. “I was fifth today (Thursday) in training, and seventh Wednesday. I think this course is really good for me. I’ve skied here a bunch. I skied fast in every section so far in the two training runs, so it’s just going to take cleaning everything up and having a flawless run, come Saturday.”

If Kitt, 23, sounds confident, that’s what it’s all about.

“One of the biggest things for me is being able to feel good about myself and my skiing, then carry that from race to race,” he said. “Hopefully, it snowballs on me, which it’s done in the past.

“Ever since my fourth at Cortina (Italy) two years ago, I’ve been really confident about my downhill, and I haven’t let anything get in the way. When I’ve had a little problem here or there, I’ve been able to work through it.

“I think confidence is one of the biggest assets I’ve got.”

Another asset, Kitt said, is Bill Egan, who formerly coached football at Saddleback College and ski racing at Mammoth Mountain.

“I think the key to my success this year so far, and in the past couple, has been . . . Bill Egan, who came onto the downhill team as our coach (three years ago),” Kitt said. “He’s a real motivator for all of us. He’s got a lot of experience coaching competitive athletes and I think that’s his biggest gift to us. He really knows what we’re thinking and how to get us fired up.”

Being fired up is fine, certainly, but there’s more to it, according to Kitt.

“Mainly, you’ve got to be smart,” he said. “You can’t just go out of the starting gate, put your head down and expect to ski fast, because most likely what’s going to happen is you’ll ski off course. You’ve got to inspect the lines. You’ve got to inspect the terrain, know where the jumps are, know where the trouble spots are, and kind of make a plan on where to go and how to ski through the trouble spots.

“I think a good downhiller is one that skis without mistakes. You know you can’t get away with too many mistakes in a downhill run. It’s really fast. It’s not just an event for thick-headed musclemen.”

One more question, AJ. What does it stand for?

“Nothing,” he said. “It honestly means nothing. It’s not my initials. It’s not A period J period. It’s just AJ, just a short name, two letters, pronounced a little differently than most names, and that’s it. My mother gave it to me when I was about two weeks old, I think.”

The U.S. Skiing media guide, which uses the periods, also lists his hometown as Rochester, N.Y.

“I was born there,” he said, “(but) I live in Boulder, Colorado, now. I bought a condo this summer and moved out there because I wanted to train in a little higher altitude in the fall, and be able to train in the mountains. I think I might go to school there (at the University of Colorado) next summer, try to get a little of that out of the way.”

In the Alps, meanwhile, he would like the course-setters to get out of his way. He decries what he sees as a conservative trend toward slowing the downhill.

“I think it’s a tragedy,” Kitt said. “One of the reasons downhill is a fantastic event is that it’s fast and dangerous. And there’s a lot of personal risk involved, because if you make a mistake in the right spot, you can do some serious damage to yourself.

“That’s one of the reasons it’s a great event. It attracts a lot of people to racing it, and it attracts a lot of people to watching it because you see people doing things that you normally wouldn’t want to do.”