Tomba Elated by 50th Victory

Alberto Tomba threw himself to the ground at the finish line, rolled on his back and burst into tears.

“It is really great, unbelievable,” he said, wiping the tears with snow. “I am so emotional.”

In a startling reversal of his poor showing at the Winter Olympics, Tomba won the last World Cup slalom of the season on Sunday at Crans Montana, Switzerland.

His 50th career victory came as many were anticipating his retirement announcement after nearly two years of mediocre performances.

“This was a very important win for me, especially after Nagano,” said Tomba, who failed in Japan to add to his collection of five Olympic medals. “For me, today’s victory is more than a gold medal. It is a platinum one.”

He was timed in 1 minute, 42.84 seconds. Olympic slalom champion, Hans-Petter Buraas of Norway, was second, 14-hundredths of a second behind. Norway’s Finn Christian Jagge was third.

The 31-year-old Italian reenacted a scene from his heyday. Pumped by the cheers of 11,000 fans, Tomba took off his skis and hurled them into the crowd. Then he tossed his poles, gloves, hat and goggles.

He proceeded to tear off his clothing, layer by layer, to end up with just a sleeveless blue undershirt and the bottom half of his racing suit.

At last month’s Olympic giant slalom--an event he won twice at previous Winter Games--he fell after only a few turns. In the slalom, he finished 17th in the first run, then pulled out of the second leg.

His only other World Cup victory this season was in a night slalom in Schladming, Austria, at the beginning of January.

Tomba burst onto the scene in Crans Montana 11 years ago, finishing third at the 1987 world championships. He went on to win the slalom and giant slalom at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, a gold and silver at the 1994 Albertville Games and another silver in Lillehammer in 1994.

At the 1996 world championships, he captured the giant slalom and slalom titles. But he hadn’t done much since.

Now, with this grand finale to his season, Tomba may decide to act on his hints to call it quits.

“Some people say it is better to quit as a winner,” he said. “I must wait and decide at home.”

Sunday’s victory was Tomba’s 35th World Cup slalom win. Only Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, who retired a decade ago, has won more with 40.

Tomba upstaged Austria’s Thomas Sykora, who retained his World Cup slalom title, finishing a mere four points ahead of teammate Thomas Stangassinger.