Rahlves Goes Down a Slippery Slope

America’s best hope for a gold medal in Alpine skiing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games took his second-ever training run down the Olympic downhill course Thursday.

Daron Rahlves wonders how many more runs he’ll get before he slides into the start gate for keeps next February.

Rahlves, the 27-year-old from Truckee, Calif., who scored a stunning victory in super-giant slalom at the recent world championships in St. Anton, Austria, hopes to make three pre-Olympic statements this weekend, starting with a World Cup downhill at Snowbasin on the Bernhard Russi-designed course.

But today’s race, a makeup for a downhill canceled last month in Wengen, Switzerland, is in jeopardy because of a storm expected to arrive overnight.

There is a separate downhill scheduled for Saturday, and a super-G for Sunday--weather permitting.

Rahlves, who finished eighth in Thursday’s training run, is upset that the U.S. team is not taking advantage of its home-mountain advantage.

After the weekend races, if they go off as scheduled, Rahlves and teammates may not get another chance on the downhill course until next year’s Olympic Games.

“I was really upset, ticked off,” Rahlves said Thursday. “We’re America, we have the Olympics here, and we can’t even train on our hill?”

Rahlves is angry the U.S. Nationals are going to be held next month at Big Mountain, Mont., instead of Snowbasin.

Rahlves questions the competitive wisdom of Austrian superstar Hermann Maier, a.k.a. the “Herminator,” getting as many runs down the American course as the Americans.

“Give us the time on the hill, so we can ski it,” Rahlves said.

Tom Kelly, spokesman for the U.S. Ski Team, said Rahlves’ complaint was well-founded.

“He’s completely right in that regard,” Kelly said. “But it goes beyond that. It goes way beyond that.”

Kelly said that because of Snowbasin’s remoteness, it was logistically impossible to accommodate more than 400 athletes in eight different disciplines for the U.S. Nationals.

“It was unrealistic to do our championships here,” Kelly said.

Rahlves tried to ski the course after the world championships, but bad weather wiped out his runs in a developmental Men’s Super Series event earlier this month.

Snowbasin is pretty much booked the rest of the season. The resort is hosting the Women’s Super Series finals March 16-18 and an FIS Disabled Alpine World Cup event from Tuesday through March 4.

The ski team could try to work in some training after that but Kelly noted it takes hundreds of volunteers to prepare a course, so that option might not be feasible.

The Olympic downhill course is generally receiving high marks, even from the finicky Europeans.

“I like it very much,” Austrian Stephan Eberharter, the current World Cup downhill standings leader, said. “It’s very steep and technical, with hard turns. I like that.”

American Chad Fleischer was more effusive.

“The hill is incredible,” he said after his training run. “The only thing that kills the place is the venue. There is limited parking and not many places to hang out.”

The course, known as “Grizzly,” was created by Russi, the Robert Trent Jones of downhill designers.

Russi, the former Olympic and World Cup downhill champion from Switzerland, designed the downhill courses for the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Olympic Games.

Olympic watchers next year will get to know the terrain: Flintock Jump, Bear Trap, Trappers Loop and Buffalo Jump.

“What we have here is really a downhill all the time,” Russi said. “There is no space, no second to pause. I compare it to a rock-and-roll dance. It’s always in motion.”

Of course, racing conditions this weekend may be radically different from next year’s Olympic runs. Because of warm temperatures, Thursday’s track was soft and slow.

The vaunted Austrians, who occupy the top four spots in the World Cup downhill standings, prefer an icier course.

So does Rahlves, who ranks 13th in the standings.

“It’s a world-class downhill for sure,” he said, “but the soft snow has made it easier.”

* SKI, FISH REPORT: D15