A Steep Challenge for Women Today : Skiing: Their downhill course is considered more difficult than men’s. Austrians and Germans favored.

It’s another weekend, another downhill in the Winter Olympics, and it may well be another Austrian gold medal.

This time, the spotlight is on the women, who today will attack the “Face du Roc de Fer,” another monster created by Bernhard Russi, who also designed the course used in the men’s downhill last Sunday, when Patrick Ortlieb won a gold medal for Austria.

Unlike the Val d’Isere track, which was criticized as too slow in spots, the women’s course is steep, fast and long. During training for the pre-Olympic downhill last winter, American Kristin Krone called it “an intimidating course, the most technically demanding I’ve ever seen, with no place to relax or gather your thoughts.”

Krone’s experience this week did little to change her opinion. In the women’s Alpine combined downhill Wednesday, on a shortened course, she flew off the big jump about a third of the way down, landed off balance and hurtled into the safety netting. She got up, seemingly unhurt, but did not start Friday’s final training run for today’s downhill competition.

Five German racers, battling for the four berths allotted each nation, dominated the last prerace run, led by Michaela Gerg, who equaled the fastest time, 1:52.83. Behind her, 19-year-old sensation Katja Seizinger was fifth, Karin Dedler sixth, Katrin Gutensohn seventh and Miriam Vogt 11th. Vogt would seem to be on the bubble, but she placed second to Austria’s Sabine Ginther in the most recent World Cup downhill two weeks ago at Grindelwald, Switzerland.

Ginther is out of today’s race after undergoing surgery for injuries suffered in a spill during Tuesday’s third training run.

The Austrians still have Veronika Wallinger, who tied Gerg on Friday, and Petra Kronberger, who was only 0.26 seconds behind the leaders.

Kronberger probably will win more medals here, including another gold or two to go with the one she got in the Alpine combined. There’s an outside chance that the 5-foot-7, 136-pound native of Pfarrwerfen, Austria, could sweep all five women’s golds, though that would mean beating Vreni Schneider of Switzerland, who is defending her Olympic titles in both the slalom and giant slalom.

They are 1-2 in the World Cup standings, with Kronberger, who turns 23 next Friday and is seeking her third consecutive overall title, holding an 813-751 lead over the 27-year-old Schneider in points.

Schneider is not in the downhill, but Heidi Zurbriggen and Chantal Bournissen should do well for the Swiss. That takes care of most of the favorites, except for the skier who will be the center of attention: Carole Merle, the 28-year-old Frenchwoman who is being counted upon to win a medal for the home team sometime during the next six days. She could do it in the downhill, but is also proficient in the super-G and the giant slalom.

Merle, who has never won a major downhill and was only 13th fastest in Friday’s training run, placed second in that event and third in the super-G in the pre-Olympic competition here more than a year ago.

Kronberger won both of those races.

The big loser in that event, held to christen the Olympic courses, was the U.S. ski team, which was called home after the women had taken only one downhill training run--the one that spooked Krone--because of security fears raised by the outbreak of the Gulf War.

The U.S. skiers have had plenty of chances for a first-hand look this week, however, and Krista Schmidinger of Lee, Mass., apparently liked what she saw. She finished second to Kronberger--and ahead of Seizinger, who has won two of the World Cup downhills this season--in Wednesday’s Alpine combined downhill. Schmidinger could not maintain her pace in the slalom Thursday and wound up 11th in the Alpine combined.

Friday, Schmidinger was 4.10 seconds behind Gerg and Wallinger. The fastest U.S. training time was posted by Hilary Lindh of Juneau, Alaska, who was 10th, 1.42 seconds off the pace.

Lindh has an outside shot at a medal, but a more likely dark horse medal candidate is Svetlana Gladishiva, from Livov in the former Soviet Union, who was fourth fastest Friday, only 0.37 seconds behind her rivals.