After Favorites Fall, Italians Left Standing : Alpine combined: Polig wins gold medal and Martin gets silver before protest by French clouds the outcome.

After the world’s leading all-around skiers finished shooting themselves in the foot, Italians won the gold and silver medals in the Olympic men’s Alpine combined Tuesday, at least provisionally, and--here’s the really big news--neither was named Tomba.

Ever heard of Josef Polig? Or Gianfranco Martin? They don’t even have completely Italian-sounding names. But they were the most complete racers in Monday’s downhill and Tuesday’s slalom, the results of which were combined to determine who would get the medals.

There might be one problem, though. About two hours after the competition ended, the French Ski Federation, perhaps noting that one of its skiers, Jean-Luc Cretier, placed fourth and barely out of the medals, protested to the International Ski Federation (FIS) and the International Olympic Committee that the Italians should be disqualified, not that they had committed a heinous crime, but because . . . ready? The advertising logos on their sweaters were too big.

According to FIS regulations, the ski clothing manufacturer’s name cannot cover more than 50 square centimeters. The French claimed that the name on the Italian racers’ garments, “Silvy,” exceeded that limit, and therefore Cretier should get the silver medal.

After deliberating for an hour or so, the FIS announced through its general secretary, Gianfranco Kasper, that the result of the men’s Alpine combined was confirmed, but that the protest will be examined again today by Kasper and FIS President Marc Hodler.

Kasper’s statement concluded: “The FIS will not give its verdict before three weeks.”

The protest was an appropriate climax to two controversial days on the slopes. After Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg and Guenther Mader of Austria were eliminated Monday on a downhill course that some called unsafe, Paul Accola of Switzerland and Hubert Strolz of Austria, the defending Olympic champion, slid out of contention Tuesday on tightly set, icy slalom courses that were criticized by nearly everyone except, naturally, the Italians.

Markus Wasmeier of Germany, the only one of the favorites to finish both races, said after the first run of the slalom: “The course is so bad, there is a gate in the middle that is almost impossible to go through. It is a very bad slope, the worst course I have encountered in my career.”

Wasmeier wound up fifth, behind bronze medalist Steve Locher of Switzerland and the fourth-place Frenchman, Cretier, and barely ahead of another Italian--no, not Tomba, but Kristian Ghedina, who at least had made sort of a name for himself with good results in World Cup downhill competition the last two seasons. Tomba, of course, avoids the combined because he dislikes the risk of the downhill portion of the event.

AJ Kitt of Rochester, N.Y., after seeing the condition of the courses and observing the wet snow that started falling early in the day, decided to skip the slalom, in which he was due to start No. 51. He said he suffered “a minor shin injury” while finishing 10th in the downhill segment, and wanted to avoid any further complications before the next men’s race, the super-giant slalom on Sunday.

Two Americans stayed the course both days. Kyle Rasmussen of Angels Camp, Calif., was 11th in the downhill and 19th in the slalom for 16th overall, and Tommy Moe of Palmer, Alaska, was 20th in each race for 18th overall.

Gold medalist Polig, who was sixth in the downhill, finished fifth in the slalom for a total of 14.58 points, edging his countryman, Martin, who was second and seventh for a total of 14.90. In this game, low is high.

The new Olympic men’s Alpine combined champion--at least for the next three weeks--is 23 and a native of Sterzing, Italy. He has competed on the World Cup circuit with less-than-spectacular success since the 1988-89 season and, after his victory, said modestly: “Even though my second heat was better than my first, I did not think I could do better than Strolz. I do not realize yet what has happened, but it is a great feeling. This gold medal is dedicated to Italy.”

Locher, who was 12th in the downhill, earned the bronze by placing second in the slalom, four-tenths of a second behind Norwegian Ole Christian Furuseth, who had a two-run time of 1:41.04. Furuseth, a top slalom specialist, could do no better than 31st in the downhill and ended up seventh in the combined.

It was Strolz’s misfortune that gave Locher his medal, and the Swiss racer was duly grateful, saying: “When Strolz did not finish, and I realized this meant I would be third, it hit me that getting fourth place in the Alpine combined would have been getting the worst place in all of the Olympics.”

Well, perhaps not quite.

Strolz, the 29-year-old Austrian who won this event the first time it was held in the Olympics, at Calgary in 1988, was four gates away from becoming the first Alpine skier to win gold medals in the same event in consecutive Winter Games. After finishing 13th in the downhill and posting the best time in the first run of the slalom, he needed only to ski fast enough to compile a two-run total of 1:40.79, which was well within reach before he momentarily lost concentration.

Apparently looking ahead to the finish line, the toughest sections of the course behind him, he skidded past a gate only a few feet from victory and was unable to recover.

Strolz said that during the race he didn’t know exactly where he stood, adding: “If I had been aware that I had such a good position, I wouldn’t have taken such risks on my second run. Well, I was lucky at Calgary, and today I was unlucky. But I’m still happy to be here.”

Not so happy, although he finished the competition, was Accola, the current World Cup overall leader, who was considered almost a cinch to win the Alpine combined after he placed fifth in the downhill leg. The Swiss star could almost visualize this morning’s headlines as he left the start house on his first run down the slalom course, when, oops, was that a gate over there?

Realizing that he had bypassed the third gate from the top, Accola abruptly stopped, climbed back about six feet up the hill and went through it, a maneuver that cost several seconds and guaranteed he would not win a medal.

Accola hoped at least to reverse the order at Calgary, where, as a 21-year-old novice, he took the bronze medal in this event behind Strolz and another Austrian, Bernhard Gstrein, who has since retired.

Accola’s mistake, which dropped him into 21st place, threw the door wide open for Strolz, who, unfortunately for the Austrian, stumbled on the threshold and dropped out of the record book, as two Italians and a Swiss came bounding across to crash the party--a soiree the French tried to dampen before the evening was out.