SKIING / CHRIS DUFRESNE : Parisiens Suffer Tragic, Senseless Loss

Jill and Victor Parisien of Auburn, Me., knew the risks involved in raising children who wanted to be ski racers.

We are often reminded that skiing is dangerous. Last Sunday, a promising Austrian skier, Peter Wirnsberger, was killed when he crashed into a wooden fence on a recreational run with his girlfriend after winning a downhill race near Salzburg.

The Parisiens never pushed their kids into the sport, but skiing in Maine is not unlike high school football in Texas. It is part of the landscape.

Julie has become the most famous Parisien, having burst onto the scene last season to become the world’s No. 1-ranked slalom skier. Her younger sister, Anna, is on the U.S. Ski Team’s B squad. Older brother Robbie joined the men’s professional tour after finishing 20th at Albertville, France, in the Olympic giant slalom.

The Parisiens accept the potential consequences of the sport. It is the course their children have chosen.

But it will be difficult to come to grips with the senseless death of the Parisiens’ oldest son, Jean Paul, who was killed last week in Bethel, Me., after his car was forced off the road by another driver, who was later arrested and charged with drunk driving.

Parisien, 24, was on his way to Vermont when his car was sideswiped on the icy highway and slammed into several trees. The eldest Parisien was a skier, too, and one of his sister’s biggest supporters.

Julie, one of America’s brightest hopes for a gold medal in the 1994 Olympic Games at Lillehammer, Norway, was preparing for World Cup super-G and downhill races at Lake Louise, Canada, when she received the news about her brother.

She flew home immediately.

The death of Jean Paul, J.P. as he was known, has rocked the skiing world and shaken the core of one of America’s favorite skiing families.

Julie drew much of her inspiration from her family, which followed her on the World Cup circuit and was never afraid to make public its affection for her. Julie will not soon forget the racket her family fan club made last month at Park City, Utah, after she won the first slalom race of the season.

The family was there, too, in the down times. Earlier this month, Parisien failed to qualify for both slalom and giant slalom second runs at a World Cup stop in Steamboat, Colo. After she slid off the course in her best event, slalom, brother Robbie was the first one there to commiserate.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy,” U.S. Alpine Director Dennis Agee said from Canada after learning of Jean Paul Parisien’s death. “Julie and J.P. were very close. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the family.”

Julie Parisien was probably the most talked-about skier on the World Cup circuit this season.

This was the year Parisien was going to live up to the promise and leave disappointments behind.

She had known degrees of heartbreak before. Her rise as America’s best female skier has been riddled with pitfalls and pratfalls.

A month before the 1992 Winter Games at Albertville, Parisien ran into a recreational skier on the slopes and lost four teeth. A few days later, she cracked her left wrist.

Still, she wobbled to the start of the slalom in the Olympics and took the lead after one run. Then, inexplicably, she played it safe on the second run and finished fourth, missing out on Olympic bronze by 0.05 seconds.

Parisien was stunned by the disappointment, but she has always been resilient. She seems to understand the complicated dynamics of her sport. She is philosophical and pragmatic.

“You can be on top one weekend, and the next you can be rock bottom and you don’t know why,” she said recently.

But there probably will never be a heartbreak to compare with the news of last week.

In the past, Parisien tried to use skiing setbacks as motivation.

“All winning does is make you feel good,” she said after her losses in Steamboat. “It doesn’t teach you anything.”

No one can be sure how her brother’s death will affect Parisien as the 1994 Olympics approach. She is not scheduled to race in another World Cup event until Jan. 9-10, when the women’s tour stops at Maribor, Slovenia, for slalom and GS races.

There is no word yet whether Parisien will even make the trip, no telling how she’ll fare in her quest to win the World Cup overall title, no telling how she’ll handle the long and winding road to Lillehammer.

Right now, none of it seems very important.

Skiing Notes

Ski Green Valley, a small resort near Running Springs, Calif., is open daily during the Christmas vacation through Jan. 3. The area, which has 64 acres of skiable terrain but no snow-making, is normally open only on weekends and holidays. The price of an adult lift ticket is one of the lowest you’ll find at $24. Ski Green Valley reports a 36-inch base of machine-groomed packed powder. . . . Snow Valley had a scare entering the two-week Chrstmas-New Year’s holidays. Last week, the area experienced a major power failure that rendered some chairlifts inoperable. Repairmen worked around the clock to replace some underground cables, and the resort was back at full capacity by the weekend.

On the World Cup circuit, American Megan Gerety turned in another strong performance Sunday when she finished fifth in a super-G race at Lake Louise in Alberta. She missed third place finish by 0.09 seconds. . . . The men didn’t fare as well Tuesday in the last pre-Christmas World Cup stop, a super-G at Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria. Tommy Moe was the top American in 27th place.

For about $2,000, you can embark on a two-week trip to Norway in March with skiing legend Stein Eriksen and filmmaker Warren Miller. The two are offering a package preview of Lillehammer for the 1994 Winter Olympics. Eriksen, who recently turned 65, was the 1952 Olympic gold medalist in the giant slalom at Oslo. Miller is renowned for his annual films on skiing. The trip will also include visits trips to Bergen and Copenhagen. For more information, call (800) SKI TRIP. . . . “Rocky Mountain Skiing,” a guide to ski resorts in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico written by Claire Walter, offers her critique of the Rockies ski scene. The book can be purchased for $18.95 in paperback or by calling (800) 992-2908.