‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : Hopes Go Off Course : Alpine skiing: Parisien is disqualified during downhill segment of combined. Street is second, with slalom heats today.

The stream of American success stories in these Olympics runs dry, for now, at Julie Parisien, the U.S. skier who most needs success.

While she had hoped to borrow some U.S. glow from Tommy Moe and Picabo Street, Sunday brought another run of bad luck for Parisien, who went off course in the women’s downhill combined at Kvitfjell, disqualifying her from today’s slalom segment.

Parisien has five days to bounce back for her one remaining event, Saturday’s women’s slalom. Once, she had the swagger of a medal contender. Now, it would be enough to stop the emotional bleeding.

“I just hope I can be in there so people don’t forget about me,” Parisien said.

The combined downhill was a repeat of Saturday’s medal finish in women’s regular downhill, with Germany’s Katja Seizinger winning, followed by Street and Isolde Kostner of Italy. Because of rule changes that now heavily weigh in favor of the slalom segment, however, it is unlikely that Sunday’s leader board will remain intact.

The medalists probably will emerge from among several gate specialists who finished well within striking distance: Slovenia’s Alenka Dovzan, who was fourth, Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg, fifth; Italy’s Morena Gallizio, sixth, and Vreni Schneider of Switzerland, seventh.

Wiberg, for example, finished 1.42 seconds behind Seizinger in the downhill, but can expect to beat the German downhiller by as many as four seconds in two slalom runs today at Hafjell.

Parisien, from Sugar Loaf, Me., had been among the top skiers in combined training this week, raising hopes that she could, at last, put this miserable stretch behind her.

Maybe next week.

Parisien had posted the 12th-fastest time after the second interval but carried too much speed into a turn and swung wide right, nearly clipping a retaining fence. She avoided real disaster but could not get back on line and ended up missing a gate.

In that instant, the self-doubt resurfaced, the haunting memories of her tragic year, which begin Dec. 17, 1992, the day her brother, Jean-Paul, was killed in a car accident. He wasn’t only the skier’s brother, he was her emotional stability. Had he lived, J.P.’s would have been the first shoulder Julie would have leaned on after Sunday’s disappointment.

Teammates have tried to fill the void. Street, with her 50,000-watt personality, offered Parisien a pat on the back and words of encouragement. But Parisien was sinking fast.

“She said, ‘Maybe this isn’t for me anymore,’ ” Street recalled of the exchange. “And I said, ‘Yeah it is, man. It’s still your sport, totally. You’ve just got find it again, and you’ve got to keep that tiger alive.’ And she will.”

Parisien, at 22, has won more World Cup races--three--than all other members of the U.S. ski team combined, men and women. But she has regressed noticeably since last February, when she claimed the silver medal in slalom at the World Championships in an emotional moment dedicated to her brother.

In a break from team policy last summer, Parisien was allowed to train separately with a personal coach, Rob Clayton. But the plan was scrapped in December because of poor race results. She began the 1992-93 season as the world’s top-ranked slalom skier, but the best she could offer this season was an eighth-place slalom finish at Altenmarkt, Austria, in January.

Parisien remains positive.

“You can’t whine about it,” she said. “Your results, you bring them on yourselves. I don’t know. It’s been really tough for me this year. I’ve been fighting a lot. It gets to the point where you just get tired. Right now, I’m up. I’m up for these Olympics, of course. We’ve won so much so far. It’s hard not to be. But I’ve been a little tired all year, always fighting this self-doubt. That’s the worst feeling an athlete can go through, ever.”

Parisien is trying to draw from the success of her teammates, particularly Street, who took the silver in Saturday’s downhill.

But watching others succeed sometimes adds extra pressure.

“It can work both ways,” Parisien said.

Street is determined to keep Parisien upbeat.

“She’s got to keep fighting, keep herself positive,” Street said, “Because she’s skiing tremendously. I haven’t seen her ski this well all year. And now she wants to dive, she wants to go down in the rut, and I’m going to try my hardest not to let her. Because she’s just starting to get it back together and she needs to keep that confidence, and I’m going to try and help her, because she’s a great girl and she’s been through a lot, and she’s one of the best skiers out here.”

Street, still aglow in her Olympic moment, had to put Sunday’s second-place finish in perspective. Before this season, combined champions were determined with a complicated formula that--although fairer perhaps--left spectators in varied states of confusion.

To simplify it, the times of downhill and two slalom runs are now combined, giving a decided advantage to slalom skiers, who can make up more time in their events than downhillers.

“I’m going to give it my best shot,” Street said. “I haven’t trained a whole lot of slalom, but I’m just going to wing it. Usually I ski well under those circumstances.”

Winging it probably best describes the attitude of the U.S. Alpine team, which has already won two gold medals and two silver.