Seizinger Planning to Seize the Medal

With all the talk of Austria’s Hermann Maier, you’d think no one else had ever dominated Alpine skiing.

Someone has.

In fact, someone has this year.

Katja Seizinger, the 25-year-old daughter of a millionaire German industrialist, starts the Nagano Games with a chance to make some history of her own.

She will be the prohibitive favorite in Tuesday’s super-giant slalom, weather always permitting. Seizinger is the defending Olympic champion in downhill and is also a gold-medal favorite in combined.

She is the current World Cup leader in super-G, downhill and overall. She won the first six speed events of the season, and is coming off recent victories in super-G (Jan. 24, Cortina, Italy) and downhill (Jan. 31, Are, Sweden).

Seizinger won four consecutive World Cup super-G titles from 1993 to ‘96, and is out to avenge her shocking result at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, when she entered the super-G as the overwhelming favorite but skied off course--handing an unexpected victory to the United States’ Diann Roffe-Steinrotter.

Seizinger’s primary competition will come from teammate Hilde Gerg, the 1997 World Cup super-G champion, and perhaps a surging Picabo Street, returning from a knee injury and a more recent concussion suffered in a Jan. 31 downhill crash at Are.

There is, of course, always the weather variable. Heavy snow on the men’s and women’s speed courses has changed the outlook for all speed events in Hakuba.

Seizinger, as do most Europeans, prefers a hard, icy track.

“Sure, I am one of the favorites, but I wouldn’t say the only favorite,” Seizinger said at a news conference here Sunday. “That’s why I do not expect too much. The conditions are not like they are in Europe.”

Seizinger has not arrived here without controversy. Quotes attributed to her by the SID news agency offered a blistering assessment of the International Olympic Committee and Nagano as an Olympic venue.

“All the test events held in Nagano were failures,” Seizinger was quoted as saying.

Seizinger also was quoted as complaining of Japan’s history of unpredictable weather conditions, and the IOC receiving preferential treatment for housing.

“I don’t think Nagano was a good choice,” she told SID.

When asked about her comments Sunday, Seizinger appeared shocked, and then explained that those were her concerns last year during a pre-Olympic visit.

“That was a problem last season,” she said. “But now we don’t have any problems. We have our own rooms [in Hakuba] now.”

Seizinger’s complaints about the weather, though, are obviously well founded, given that the men’s downhill has already been postponed until Wednesday because of heavy snowfall.

“I wouldn’t say it bothers me,” Katja said of the weather. “We’re used to that. We knew before we came here it might be a problem. Our preparations were like this. We must be very quiet. We can’t change it. It’s the same for everyone.”

Softer course conditions should be a big advantage for Street, who suffered a serious knee injury in Vail, Colo., 14 months ago and had a harrowing, 75-mph crash less than two weeks ago in Sweden.

Street reports she is still suffering headaches as a result of the crash but is otherwise OK.

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Alpine Skiing / Women’s Super G

Katja Seizinger, the 1994 gold medalist in the women’s downhill, will try to become queen of the hill in the super-G Tuesday. Seizinger comes into the Winter Olympics on a roll, winning a record-tying six consecutive races, three downhills and three super-Gs. Her main challengers figure to include German teammate Hilde Gerg and American Picabo Street.

Super-Giant Slalom (Super-G)

Skiers maneuver through series of gates, requiring long, sustained turns at high speeds. Both feet (skis) must pass through each gate.

* Men: Minimum of 35 gates

* Women: Minimum of 30 gates

* Location: Happo’ one Ski Area in Hakuba

* Starting order: Determined by skiers’ worldwide ranking, except for the top 15 competitors, whose starting order is determined by draw.

Sources: Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Assn., Associated Press Winter Olympic Handbook; Associated Press photo; Researched by JANICE L. JONES and MIKE JAMES / Los Angeles Times