THE OLYMPICS WINTER GAMES AT ALBERTVILLE : A Silver Lining for Roffe : Skiing: Strong second run propels her to tie for second in giant slalom. Sweden’s Wiberg wins the gold.

Seven years of bad luck have finally ended for Diann Roffe.

In 1985, as a 17-year-old racer completely unknown in Europe, she won the gold medal in the World Alpine Skiing Championships at Bormio, Italy.

And that almost became “The Diann Roffe Story,” no Chapter 2, no sequel.

“I was so mad during the next World Championships in 1987 that I packed my bags and was ready to go home,” she said recently. “(U.S. teammate) Debbie Armstrong talked me out of it.”

Lucky for her . . . and for the United States in the XVIth Winter Olympics.

On a sunny, blue-sky Wednesday, Roffe took out all her frustrations on the second giant slalom course as she skied her way to a silver medal behind Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden.

“I knew it was in me to do this,” she said, trying to fight back tears in the finish area. “After all the down times, I’m back. It’s everyone’s dream to win an Olympic medal. I tried telling myself, ‘Just ski your best,’ but damn it, that medal has been my dream, too.”

Asked by a TV interviewer to take off her sunglasses, she demurred, saying: “No, I can’t. I’m crying. I hope you understand. I’m a basket case right now.”

Roffe was ninth after the first run, 1.05 seconds behind the leader, Ulrike Maier of Austria.

“I almost fell at the top of the first course,” she said. “Then I didn’t ski the way I could. I thought I might have given away too much time to the others.”

Two other Americans were faster than Roffe in the first run: Julie Parisien of Auburn, Me., was fifth, .74 seconds back, and Eva Twardokens of Santa Cruz was sixth, .87 out.

Roffe was the first U.S. racer to make her second run, and she smoked it, moving into the lead with a total time of 2:13.71. “I didn’t know if it was possible to move up from ninth into the medals,” she said. “But I had to try and go all out. I had nothing to lose.”

At one point, the top three names on the scoreboard were American: 1-Roffe, 2-Parisien, 3-Twardokens. But there was one problem: The four fastest skiers in the first run--Ulrike Maier of Austria, Wiberg, Anita Wachter of Austria and Carole Merle of France--were still to come.

Only two of them were able to catch Roffe. Merle couldn’t do it, disappointing the home crowd, but Wachter’s total time was identical to Roffe’s, so they were both assured of a medal, its color depending on what happened to Wiberg and Maier. The Swede made the fastest second run, 1:06.38--.12 better than Roffe’s sizzler--and her total time of 2:12.74 dropped Roffe and Wachter into second place. Then when Maier came up .06 short, the medals stayed silver.

Roffe’s medal was the second American silver in Alpine skiing. Hilary Lindh got one in the women’s downhill Saturday. The depth of the U.S. women’s team was further demonstrated as Parisien, skiing with a broken wrist, finished fifth, 1.36 seconds behind the winner, and Twardokens wound up seventh, another .37 back.

Said Parisien: “I’m totally proud of my result. This was my best GS of the year, and the Olympics was the time to get it. Of course, it’s tough to come so close and miss a medal, but it will just give me a burning desire for the slalom.”

That race will be today, and the field will include another racer looking for vindication, Vreni Schneider, who extended Switzerland’s slump by failing to finish the first run Wednesday. Trying to emulate Italy’s Alberto Tomba by winning the gold medal in the same event in successive Olympics, Schneider broke a ski pole on an early gate, then missed another gate and abandoned the whole thing. “It just wasn’t my day,” she said.

She’ll get another chance to follow in Tomba’s tracks today, because she also won the slalom at Calgary in 1988, but the double-double possibility is gone. Tomba, meanwhile, still has a chance for one in Saturday’s men’s slalom at Les Menuires.

Missing from today’s starting order will be Italian Deborah Campagnoni, who won the gold medal in the super-G Tuesday. She fell on her first run Wednesday and tore ligaments in her left knee.

Wiberg, 21, the 1991 world champion in the giant slalom, said she is finally skiing up to the Swedish public’s expectations, adding: “After I won last year, everyone thought I should never lose a race, and of course, that is impossible. But there was a lot of pressure on me for a while this season. After they saw I couldn’t win all the time, the pressure went down, so I am more relaxed for the Olympics.”

Roffe, 24, said she is also more relaxed, and attributed her new “maturity” to her marriage last June to Willi Steinrotter, who coaches skiing, soccer and lacrosse at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.

“My life is more stable now,” she said. “And that makes ski racing easier. After I fell in the super-G, he told me not to worry about it and made me feel better.”

With Canada’s Kerrin Lee-Gartner having won the downhill gold medal and the also-married Merle having taken the super-G silver, Roffe was asked if she might be continuing a trend.

“Well,” she replied, “maybe people won’t look at your being married as making you too old to race. I know this old married lady has no plans to retire.”

And that hasn’t always been the case.

Slow to regain her form after injuring her left knee in a giant slalom at Oberstaufen, Germany, in 1986, Roffe seriously considered hanging up her skis the following year--before Armstrong, the 1984 Olympic giant slalom gold medalist, talked her out of it.

“I never hated skiing so much as I did that year,” Roffe said.

In the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary, she managed only a 12th in the giant slalom and a 15th in the slalom, but she was enjoying skiing again.

Last season looked promising until Dec. 19, 1990, when she reinjured her left knee during downhill training at Morzine, France, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament and going out for the rest of the winter.

“Now, I’m so glad I stuck with it. I love this sport so much, and the Olympic silver medal makes it all worthwhile, makes you forget everything else.”