‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : DATELINE / LILLEHAMMER : Spirits Were Soaring--and So Were the Athletes

If there’s one thing Norwegians go as nuts about as cross-country skiing, it’s ski jumping. It’s also Nordic, natch.

The Olympic airborne troops leaped off the big hill here Sunday and they had a big crowd to appreciate their efforts. Big--40,000 were there--and up for it. The local favorite, Espen Bredesen, was the gold-medal favorite and had the crowd excited to begin with, and about half the folks there, even those with seats, never sat.

Bredesen was outjumped and had to settle for silver--he said he was pleased and proud to have it--but it really made little difference to the faithful assembled. They had a great time.

They did the wave--you haven’t lived if you haven’t seen the wave done with thousands of Norwegian flags--they bopped to a hot jazz band, they cringed audibly when jumpers Randy Weber and Staffan Taellberg crashed after landing, they yodeled when Austrian Andreas Goldberger got off a good jump and they clanged their cowbells for no particular reason at all.

And why not? It was a beautiful, sunshine-bright winter day begging to be enjoyed. Cold, of course, but not unbearably so if you were dressed properly--and had a buffer of some kind to put between your feet or fanny and the snow, which has been collecting in the stadium since winter began sometime last fall.

The setting couldn’t have been more beautiful. You could look up the hill at the double-barreled ski slides and watch skiers’ efforts to defy gravity, then turn slightly and know that humans are always going to come off second best in any contest with nature.

Nothing manufactured will ever match the pristine beauty of the Norwegian countryside in its winter cloak, and it’s all there for the looking. Just peek behind the Olympic flame and there it is, as far as the eye can see.

As for the competition, Norwegian jumpers drew the biggest cheers, of course, but, just as at the cross-country course, the talents of all the competitors were applauded and good jumps drew enthusiastic response even if it meant Norge would not carry this particular day.

That’s one of the nice things about this country. Second place isn’t viewed as some kind of horrid disgrace. And a day in the sunshine can be its own reward.