‘94 WINTER LILLEHAMMER OLYMPICS : European Sweep Helps Restore Order in the Mountains : Alpine skiing: Sweden’s Wiberg wins gold medal in combined with strong slalom runs. A Swiss wins the silver, a Slovenian the bronze as U.S. is finally shut out.

No one expected American skiers to win a medal in every event, right? Get the Swiss more steamed than they are?

Why not toss Sweden a bone?

American Alpine excellence made a nice run on the world stage last week, but everyone knows all gold things come to an end.

Skewered after watching the U.S. collect medals in the first four Olympic Alpine events, the Euros stepped up to the gates Monday and announced their presence, sweeping the women’s combined.

Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg took the gold at the Hafjell course, defeating Swiss veteran Vreni Schneider by a total of 0.13 seconds in the two-day event, which combines the times of a downhill and two slalom runs. Alenka Dovzan of Slovenia took the bronze.

Picabo Street, second after Sunday’s combined downhill, finished 10th overall, not a surprise given her lack of slalom experience.

But during the U.S. streak, nothing seemed impossible.

After Street’s “disappointment,” U.S. ski team surgeon Richard Steadman told Paul Major, the Alpine director, “Greed is a very ugly thing.”

Europe broke through with a series of firsts:

--Wiberg, a 23-year-old pop singer and former mail carrier, earned the first Alpine medal for Sweden before a crowd that included her country’s King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia.

Although she did not face “off-with-her-head” pressure, Wiberg was relieved.

“I’m happy to have them here,” she said. “I like them very much. It’s a fine king and queen we have.”

--Schneider, 29, ended Switzerland’s exasperating dry spell, no Olympic medals dating 12 events to the Albertville Games. Schneider was a double gold-medal winner, in slalom and giant slalom, at Calgary in 1988, when the Swiss won 10 Alpine medals.

Questioned about a mistake that might have cost her the gold in her first run of slalom, Schneider responded politely, “I did not lose the gold, I won the silver.”

--Dovzan, who turned 18 on Feb, 11, earned the first Olympic medal for Slovenia since it gained independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Dovzan was not prepared to tackle the political significance of her bronze.

“I think this is a big Olympic medal for Slovenia,” she said. “We are a little state, 2 million, it means a lot.”

Street, still basking in the glow of Olympic silver, didn’t stand much of a chance.

“I knew this was how it was going to wind up and I just wanted to go out and ski a good race for myself and smile and have a good time,” she said. “I hope the rules change back so that they’re not so favorable for the slaloms in combined for the next Olympics.”

A recent rule change, intended to simplify combined scoring, has given slalom specialists a marked advantage.

In fact, the top three finishers in the downhill combined--German’s Katja Seizinger, Street and Isolde Kostner of Italy--were no factor in the end.

Seizinger and Kostner missed gates and were disqualified.

Under the old format, Street thinks she might have earned a medal. That complicated system handicapped the race to consider the vast difference between events.

In the past, a racer who had a one-second lead after downhill was likely to be granted an additional second before the slalom, in which a skilled technician can quickly make up lost downhill time.

The old system was more equitable, yet few could understand it.

Why the change?

“It’s done like in every other sport,” Major said. “They get a bunch of guys in a room, guys who have been around for a while and know all the answers. And they come up with some weird stuff. I like the old style. I think it’s great for the public to see the times, but there’s got to be some sort of compromise between times in weighing the downhill vs. the slalom event.”

Using the old system for last year’s World Championships at Morioka, Japan, Street won the downhill, placed 15th in slalom, and won the silver in combined.

Here, Street placed second in downhill, 10th in the slalom and 10th overall. Major said he intends to calculate Street’s Olympic numbers under the old formula to see where she would have placed.

That won’t be any time this week, though, because Major left the formula at home.

The Olympic combined became a foregone conclusion when slalom specialists Wiberg, Schneider and Dovzan finished within 1.63 seconds behind Seizinger in Sunday’s downhill portion.

Seizinger went out on her first slalom run, but the slalom specialists might well have made up the time difference on the first run anyway, with another run to follow.

In the morning run, Wiberg edged Schneider by 0.40 seconds and that, figured with her downhill time, gave her a 0.61 differential with the afternoon run remaining.

Schneider, winner of five World Cup slaloms this season, could not make up the difference on Wiberg, the defending Olympic GS gold medalist, in the second run.

Schneider, who skied before Wiberg on the second run, gave it her all, besting Wiberg handily--46.63 to 47.11--but she had too much ground to make up.

And who might Wiberg thank for her victory?

Would you believe Picabo Street?

The American has been teaching Wiberg the finer points of downhill. Maybe Street can exchange them for some slalom lessons.

Street, with a medal in the bag, was rooting for Wiberg, who has returned to top form after sitting out much of last season because of a torn Achilles’ tendon.

“I saw her before the second run today and I said, ‘It’s all you, girl,’ ” Street said. “You’ve got it. Don’t just beat ‘em, work ‘em.’ She came back from a really, really nasty injury last year to just clean everybody’s clock all year.”