Scandinavian Field Day

The embarrassed natives of Lake Placid, N.Y. explained that the weather was really unusual. With 130 crack skiers on hand last week to compete in the Federation Internationale de Ski world championships, there just wasn't any snow. Ice-crushing machines crunched away to give

Placid's big 65-meter hill an artificial coat of powdered ice--and one jumper broke an arm practicing on the makeshift footing. When the snow finally fell, it was like manna to Norway's prize crew of jumpers.

Under normal conditions, the Norwegians could outjump most of the rest of the world on one leg. In the first half of the two-part Nordic combined event (jumping and cross-country), they went about proving it. Norway took the first five places. The best mark: a formful, 223-ft. flight by thick-set Simon Slaattvik, who, back home, runs a locomotive on the Norwegian state railways. His jumps gave Slaattvik a good lead in the Nordic, but he still had the rugged, 18-kilometer (11.2-mile) cross-country trek ahead of him. The man he knew he would have to beat: Finland's Olympic champion in the Nordic, Heikke Hasu, who had come in sixth in the jumps and who figured to out-ski the Norwegians in the second event.

Up Sweden. The cross-country had been switched to Rumford, Me. in the search for deep snow. After shuttling 275 miles by bus and auto, Slaattvik, Hasu and 67 others took off at Rumford in a biting wind. Although nine nations were represented, it was strictly a Scandinavian show. First place went to a skinny, 145-Ib. Swedish store clerk named Karl-Erik Aastroem. He poled through the drifts in 1 hr. 6 min. 16 sec. to become the world's individual 18-kilometer champion.

The next 26 finishers were either Swedes, Finns or Norwegians (the best a U.S. competitor could do was finish 46th), but Railroadman Slaattvik was not among them. His hopes of becoming Nordic champion melted long before he labored home in 36th place. The man he was afraid of, Finland's Hasu, made up enough cross-country points by finishing tenth to win the combined-event crown.

Up Norway. Back at Lake Placid this week, Norway unveiled a new batch of jumpers for the prime show of winter sport: the individual jumping championships. Forty contestants in all sped down the runway, soared off the lip of the tower and jackknifed forward in the long dive into space. When it was all over, Norway had done it again; six of the first eight places had gone to Norwegians. The champ: a 21-year-old Norwegian farmer, Hans Bjoernstad, who made jumps of 224 and 223 ft. Sixth place went to former U.S. Amateur Champion Artie Devlin of Lake Placid. His jumps of 220 and 219 ft. were second only to Bjoernstad's for distance, but they lacked the flawless style of the best of the Scandinavians.

What was the Scandinavians' secret? Said 38-year-old Birger Ruud, the old master who is non-jumping captain of Norway's team: "Of all a child's playthings, skis are the first gift in Norway, and the most important." In Norway they could also count on having snow.

In another winter world championship, at Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy's Dolomites, a U.S. four-man bobsled driven by Lake Placid's Stan Benham rumbled down the icy slide in 1:21.03, a new course record, to win by a narrow margin. Runner-up: Switzerland.

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