Austrians Go Far in Pursuit of Gold : Ski jumping: Vettori, 27, flies to victory on normal hill, beating countryman Hoellwarth, 17.

If Austria ever had a better day than Sunday in Olympic skiing, it must have been a doozy.

Hardly had Patrick Ortlieb won the gold medal in the men’s downhill at Val d’Isere than Ernst Vettori flew to another here off the normal hill in jumping. And his teammate, Martin Hoellwarth, won the silver.

Those performances, combined with Guenther Mader’s bronze in the downhill, gave the Austrians four of the six medals available in those two events. And in the case of Vettori, a well-seasoned veteran of 27, he put a couple of kids in their places, beating both Hoellwarth, 17, and the newest Finnish star, Toni Nieminen, 16, with his second jump, at 87.5 meters the longest of the second round.

Vettori, with an 88-meter jump the first time around, finished with 222.8 points. Hoellwarth, whose first jump of 90.5 (296 feet 10 inches), the longest of the day, put him into the lead in the first round, jumped last in the second, knowing a good effort would give him the gold. Instead, he managed only 83 meters and wound up with 218.1 points.

Nieminen had 217 points on jumps of 88 and 84.5.

Jim Holland of Norwich, Vt., the leading American, finished 13th on jumps of 85 and 81.

“I’m a little disappointed with both of my jumps,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m happy. I was looking to do a little better, but it’s a pretty respectable finish. I was pretty psyched and I thought I could have been in there. But I’ll take it. It’s not bad. Thirteenth place in the Olympics, that’s not bad.

“First jump, I jumped a little bit too late. Second jump I got a good start but got a wee bit crooked (in the air). When you’re doing the V and you get a little bit crooked, that’s not a good thing.”

The V is the rage in ski jumping these days, replacing the classical skis-together style of jumping. In the V--ski tails together, tips far apart--the jumper uses his upper body as a wing for more sustained lift. Most of Sunday’s jumpers, and all of the medal winners, used that style.

Vettori, in fact, credited Jan Bokloev, the Swedish jumper who developed the V technique, for part of his success.

“I am very happy that I could win the gold here with his style,” Vettori said. “This medal is a little bit dedicated to Bokloev. I knew I could do well here, but frankly I did not expect the gold.”

Nieminen, the World Cup sensation who was favored to become the youngest male gold medalist in Winter Games history, was pleased with what he got.

“It’s like a dream,” he said. “I still can’t believe it. It was a really good fight for the medals.”

Hoellwarth, too, was more than satisfied.

“To be in my first Olympics at 17 and to win a medal is fantastic,” he said. “I can’t complain about the second place.”

Jumpers had nearly ideal conditions for the first round but by the second, the sun had ducked behind the mountain and the wind had come up, blowing straight down the slide, behind the skiers.

Jumpers perform best when leaping into a headwind, getting better lift and less buffeting. Consequently, nearly all jumps in the second round were shorter than the first.

Other American jumpers finished well out of contention. Tad Langlois of Newport, N.H., was 28th, Bryan Sanders of Stillwater, Minn., 38th, and Bob Holme of Littleton, Colo., 51st.