LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : Moe-Hum, Another U.S. Medal : Alpine: Alaskan adds a silver in super-G to his gold in downhill, making him first American male to win two skiing medals at one Olympics.

American skiers aren’t only gloating, they’re yawning.

This, as Swiss stars call it quits, Austrians duck for cover and the French get fried.

Four days after mining gold in the Olympic downhill, Tommy Moe struck silver in the men’s super-giant slalom on Thursday, placing second behind Germany’s Markus Wasmeier by eight one-hundredths of a second.

Wasmeier’s winning time was 1 minute 32.53 seconds.

Moe’s time? Well, it has come. The crowd of 50,000 at the Kvitfjell Alpine Center to cheer the host-country favorite, Kjetil Andre Aamodt, had to settle for singing birthday wishes to an adopted son, Moe, who is of Norwegian descent.

Aamodt finished third.

With the silver, Moe, who celebrated his 24th birthday, dispelled notions that his downhill victory was a fluke.

“I didn’t want to let this opportunity pass me by just because I won the downhill,” he said. “I knew I had just as good a chance as anybody.”

No telling what Tommy Moe might do at the Olympics if he could stay awake. Another big race? In the starting gate, Moe said, he yawned three or four times before blistering the course set by his coach, Bill Egan.

It has been that kind of week for the United States in Alpine. The course setter is determined by random draw of coaches for the top 15 skiers. The chance of Egan’s name being drawn, then, was one in 15.

Moe, who seems to be adjusting well to fame, learned he was on the cusp of U.S. Alpine history while pouring milk on morning cereal.

“I was looking at the past medal winners when I was having breakfast,” he said.

Between bites, Moe noted that no U.S. male Alpine skier had ever won more than one medal in the same Olympics. Wouldn’t it be cool to do that, he said.

So Moe took care of history in almost no time, 1:32.61 to be precise.

He was not about to neglect his good fortune. The key to Thursday’s race was obtaining an early starting position so he could get on the course before it became rutted by other skiers, leading to increasingly slower times.

“You can set your own tracks,” he said.

This Moe is no stooge. Turned out the top four finishers were among the first nine racers.

Moe drew start No. 8 in the downhill and wore bib No. 3 for the super-G.

“I don’t like to sit around and see people’s times,” Moe said. “I just want to go.”

Moe’s hopes for double gold were quickly dashed, though. His reign atop the leader board lasted the time it took Wasmeier, next down the hill, to cross the finish line.

Moe’s excitement was also tempered as he awaited the times of the two race favorites, Aamodt, the defending Olympic champion, and Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli.

Aamodt, skiing seventh, made a run at the leaders but settled for third. Girardelli, skiing next, took fourth.

The course got sloppy soon afterward, making it difficult for skiers to hold their lines. After the top 10 had skied, no racer posed a serious threat to the leaders.

Seeing as how no countryman has yet claimed Alpine gold, Norwegians have taken to the American whose great-great grandfather hailed from Oslo.

You might have expected fans to acknowledge the birthday of Norway’s Atle Skaardal, who skied first and was treated in the finish corral with birthday song and cake.

But how did they know about Moe? When he crossed the finish, the crowd reprised “Happy Birthday.”

When he realized the song was for him, Moe waved to the crowd and blew a kiss.

“It was kind of surprising,” he said. “It just makes it really easy for the Americans to come to Norway and enjoy the whole scene. The whole atmosphere is just wonderful.”

Strange how one’s stature can change in four days. Moe’s mother, Joann Persons, who could not afford to make the trip from Whitefish, Mont., to Norway, was en route Thursday.

After hearing that the mother of the Olympic downhill champion could not be with her son, citizens of Whitefish raised the money to pay her way.

Medals talk.

“I can’t believe I have two medals,” Moe said. “It just feels out of this world. . . . A lot of people in the world would like to be in my boots right now. I kind of feel like I’m in a dream. It’s hard to explain how overwhelmed I am right now.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the skiing world turns green with envy.

With still a week of Alpine remaining, the United States already has more medals than ski powerhouses Austria and Switzerland combined.

With two gold medals and a silver, the United States has a chance to eclipse its best Alpine performance, at Sarajevo in 1984, when Americans won three gold and two silver medals.

Don’t expect the United States to send flowers.

“Teams like the Austrians and the Swiss, they’re expected to win,” Paul Major, the U.S. Alpine director, said. “They let that get to them. It’s their fault for letting it get to them. We get beat year in and year out and nobody cries for us. We’re in Europe for three months, but nobody cries for us.”

Even Aamodt, the finest all-around skier in the world, concedes that Americans are not afraid to go for the jugular in big events.

Aamodt said Norwegians, himself included, have always needed daily affirmation.

Moe has helped Norway realize that it’s OK to be good.

“Even if you do something special, you shouldn’t think you’re something special,” Aamodt explained of old Norwegian thinking. “You (the United States) like to be No. 1. It’s the American Dream. I think the American Dream is finally coming to Norway for the Olympics.”

Moe, one of the dreamers, was disappointed that he had missed his second gold by .08. But if he could have chosen the man he might lose it to, it might have been Wasmeier.

The 30-year-old veteran from Schliersee, who restores antique paintings and plays Mozart on his violin in his spare time, is the Diann Roffe-Steinrotter of the German team.

Both were tremendous longshots to win. Both won their Olympic golds this week in super-G. Both rebounded from serious injury. Wasmeier, as had Roffe-Steinrotter, won the 1985 world championship--in giant slalom.

Neither had done much since. Roffe-Steinrotter has not won a World Cup race since 1985. Wasmeier has won only one super-G since 1988.

This week, Roffe-Steinrotter mentioned to Wasmeier the similarities.

“She said: ‘You could win the super-G too,’ ” Wasmeier said. “It was a joke. I was very surprised I could win this race today.”

So far, the Olympics have been full of Alpine surprises.

Moe had never finished higher than third in a downhill and had never placed higher than third in a super-G.

Moe, who has never won a downhill combined, will try to do so next Friday in the slalom after having placed third in the downhill segment earlier this week.

Moe can’t hold Alberto Tomba’s boots in slalom, but who wants to bet against him?

“If I’m going to beat Girardelli in slalom, I’d better start training tomorrow,” Moe said.

Meanwhile, Austria picks up the pieces after super-G finishes of ninth, 11th and 37th.

La Belle France? It had two finishers in the top 20.

Switzerland had to hang its ski cap on Marc Hangl, who finished 10th. The Swiss team also announced the retirement of Franz Heinzer, the great downhiller, at 32.

Heinzer will be remembered this week for perhaps the shortest Olympic run in history when he popped out of a ski just as he left the starting gate.

Isn’t this what Americans used to do?