A Short Guide to All the Action

If it's Saturday, this must be Seefeld. For visitors to Innsbruck and television viewers round the globe, the Winter Games provide a panorama of grace and prowess under pressure. Most Nordic events will be staged at Seefeld, 15 miles to the northwest of the city; three miles south, at Igls and Patscherkofel, tourists can take in the bobsled, luge and men's downhill. The other alpine races will be held at Axamer Lizum, a 25-minute bus ride to the southwest from downtown.

U.S. television spectators will benefit from the 45 cameras positioned throughout the area. ABC, which paid about $8 million for broadcast rights, will put Sportscasters Curt Gowdy, Jim McKay and Frank Gifford plus Pierre Salinger behind microphones.

The Shah of Iran has canceled his visit to the Games after the kidnaping last month of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna. But Innsbruck will still attract a powdering of such celebrities as Muhammad Ali, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Lord Snowdon. To prevent another terrorist Munich, Austrian police will enforce tight security, even at the Olympic Ball, where every fourth tuxedoed guest is likely to be a policeman.

But the real stars of the show will be the athletes living at the Olympic Village. Accommodations at the high-rise development on the Inn River will be spartan, but 60 cooks in the mess hall will see that none of the competitors go hungry. Each athlete is apportioned 6,000 calories a day of such dishes as Macaroni Bordelais and Ham Steak Hawaii; officials are rationed to 3,000-calorie menus. The following guide, based on reports from TIME correspondents, limns the essentials of each sport and spotlights some top competitors. Events are run under the metric system: a meter is slightly more than 3 ft.; a kilometer (1,000 meters) is slightly more than six-tenths of a mile. Capsules of what and whom to watch for:

ALPINE SKIING Three events: downhill, slalom and giant slalom for men and women. Downhill: one timed run down a 3.1-km. course that drops 870 meters for men, 700 meters in 2.5 km. for women. Slalom: two runs down a short course. Racers must ski through series of gates (two poles 4 to 5 ft. apart) to win.

With training techniques and equipment ever more sophisticated and timing more exact, alpine skiing today resembles Formula One auto racing: runs get faster and the risks bigger. Victory or defeat depends on a few hundredths of a second. This season alone two skiers have crashed to death in international competition. Fierce national rivalry, especially in Europe, and a multimillion-dollar ski industry have turned top skiers into human missiles, whose streamlining is tested in wind tunnels. The choice of wax for polyethylene ski bottoms before each run is a state secret. Innsbruck may produce top speeds of nearly 85 m.p.h. Says Austrian Champion Franz Klammer, 22: "You know what a car looks like if it hits a wall at that speed." Adds former World Champion Annemarie Proell-Moser: "If angst grips you, stay off the course."

Since 1952, the first year that all three alpine events were held, only two skiers, Austria's Toni Sailer and Jean-Claude Killy of France, have been good enough to manage a complete sweep. Innsbruck will probably not turn up such a man or woman. Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark could win two medals. The son of a farmer, Stenmark, 19, finished first or second in eleven of 15 slalom events last season and is leading the combined standings for this year's World Cup. He has the nerves that are as necessary as goggles to this competition. "A good thing you got married," he wired newlywed Gustavo Thoeni of Italy, his principal rival, last year. "This will be consolation for you in the coming season--especially at Innsbruck."

Klammer, Italian Herbert Plank, 21, and Swiss Veteran Bernhard Russi, 27, should dominate the downhill schuss. "Go for maximum speed, but never force it," says Russi. Forcing it, however, is Klammer's credo. The straighter--and steeper--the course, the better Franz feels. He likes a sheer drop of ice, so Innsbruck's curvy Patscherkofel Trail is not ideal for him. Two Canadian daredevils, Dave Irwin and Ken Read, have recently scored upsets in European events.

Cindy Nelson, 20, is the only American alpinist given much chance to win a medal. But the favorite in Cindy's best event, the downhill, will probably be Austrian Brigitte Totschnig. Such racers as her teammate Monika Kaserer, Switzerland's duo of Lise-Marie Morerod and Marie-Therese Nadig, and Rosi Mittermaier of West Germany will ensure that most of the medals stay in Europe.

NORDIC SKIING Four disciplines: cross-country skiing for men and women, jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon for men only. Cross-country: three individual races for men from 15 to 50 km.; two women's races, 5 and 10 km.; one relay race each for men and women. Jumping: staged on 70-and 90-meter hills; winners chosen for distance and form. Combined: separate competition requiring both jumping and skiing ability. Biathlon: 20-km. cross-country race in which competitors carry and fire rifles at targets along the way. Time penalties assessed for missed bull's-eyes. One 30-km. relay race.

"I am not an athlete, exactly," says Austrian Toni Innauer, 5 ft. 8 in., 130 lbs. "I am tough." At 17 he is tough enough to rate as the favorite in the 70-meter jumping competition. Raised in his father's pub halfway up an alp, Toni's budding alpine career was nipped at age twelve by officials who considered him too puny. He enrolled at a state-run skiing school, becoming a protege of Jumping Coach Baldur Preiml.

Preiml, 36, is the Austrian equivalent of football's total technician Tom Landry: both leave nothing to chance. All his jumpers are tested for heart and lung capacity in repose as well as under stress, and he has even sent them to the Schellbach Institute in West Germany for a dose of will-strengthening therapy. It must work, since Preiml has at least four medal threats, including 90-Meter Favorite Karl Schnabl. No secrets, Preiml says. Except for his wonder wax initially developed by a Viennese glazier to coat windows.

The technological revolution has finally overtaken cross country skiing, a sport in which birchwood and hickory skis, long socks and knickers were once trademarks. The skis are fiber glass now, and racers are zipped into one-piece racing suits. Still, success probably lies in guessing correctly the two kinds of wax applied separately to tips and tails and under the racer's boot. Maintaining a steady "working pulse on the trail" is also important.

Cross-country skiing is no longer the exclusive province of its Nordic creators. Soviet and East German skiers are as adept as their Scandinavian counterparts in the double-pole technique, and equally sturdy. In fact, Zinaida Amosova, Galina Kulakova and Raisa Smetanina could effect a Soviet sweep of women's races. Sweden's Thomas Magnuson, a former lumberjack known as "The Slugger," Finnish Sports Instructor Juha Mieto and Norway's Oddvar Braa should win medals, but East Germany's Gerhard Grimmer is technically as skilled. Glim mer's teammate, Ulrich Wehling, skis and jumps consistently enough to win the combined.

Biathlon, the Games' most eccentric sport, is surely the most demanding. Racers must push their bodies to the thresh old of fatigue, then steady to take dead aim at the four firing points along the trail. Particularly punishing are the 200-meterlong penalty loops that competitors in the relay race must run if they fail to break a target. It is all a far cry from the origins of the sport in Lapland, when dinner depended on a hunter's accuracy. Heikki Ikola of Finland could win the individual event; the Soviets and Finns will go head to head in the relays.

BOBSLED Competition for two-and four-man sleds. Countries can enter two sleds in each event. Course is 1,220 meters long, has 14 curves and a vertical drop of 97 meters. Sleds are steel and aluminum with lead weights permitted to attain maximum allowable weight. Best combined time for four runs wins.

Neither rain nor thaw will stay the bobsled racers from their rounds at speeds up to 70 m.p.h. at Innsbruck. The course, which cost $5 million to construct, is artificially refrigerated. Unfortunately, say the speed freaks who will use it, it is too safe and far too short. West German Baker Wolfgang Zimmerer, who won a gold and a bronze in Sapporo in 1972, complains that the brevity of the course places undue emphasis on quick starts.

Zimmerer will drive both sleds again. He will have two weight men for ballast in the four, and brakemen under oath not to slow him down. The principal challenge could come from the Swiss, East Germans or the impetuous Italians. Says Italian Team Director Giorgio Galli: "We often have to keep some of our boys in the hospital longer than we should to make sure they don't get back into a sled prematurely." Not even warm weather deters them. In the summer the Italians replace their runners with wheels and career madly down mountain slopes and roads.

LUGE Singles competition for men and women, doubles race for men on small wooden sleds which have canvas or braided plastic seats. Same course as for bobsled but with more steeply inclined starting ramps. Best combined time for four runs wins singles; best time for two runs wins doubles.

Scratch a Flexible Flyer and underneath lies a luge. The principal difference, of course, is a matter of speed. The luge run at Innsbruck will produce a maximum speed of almost 70 m.p.h., and belly flopping is grounds for disqualification. The racers lie on their backs and steer with their feet. East German women won gold and silver medals in 1968, but were disqualified for illegally heating their steel runners before the race. On cold steel, they swept all medals at Sapporo and should do so again. Margit Schumann is the best woman, and Countryman Hans Rinn is also a strong threat for gold. The Italians could challenge the East Germans for the title in doubles.

HOCKEY Five-game round robin for twelve teams divided into two divisions. Single-game elimination determines composition of A and B divisions. Only teams in division A can win a medal.

If two Soviet teams can embarrass most clubs in the National Hockey League, imagine the scores their All-Star aggregate will run up against amateur opponents in Innsbruck. Alexander Yakushev is the best left wing in the world, says Bobby Hull, and Goal Tender Vladislav Tretiak has proved he is unsurpassed at stopping shots. Why bother holding the tournament?

Because, says Czechoslovakia's coach Karel Gut, his team can win the gold medal. The Czechs lost the Izvestia Cup tournament to the Soviets last December by only one goal, and the Russians had home-ice advantage. Gut is confident that Goal Tender Jiri Holocek and Wing Vladimir Martinek are the equals of the better-publicized Soviets. The Finns are a solid bet for a bronze, but the young American team could surprise. In fact, U.S. Coach Bob Johnson is planning on it. He has a future pro goalie in Jim Warden, and his squad has beaten teams from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union during a rigorous 56-game practice schedule.

SPEED SKATING Five events for men ranging from 500 to 10,000 meters. Four events for women ranging from 500 to 3,000 meters. Competitors race in pairs counterclockwise around a 400-meter rink, switching lanes in the backstretch. Skater in outside lane has right of way. Pairings are drawn by lot.

Speed skaters hate the strong midday sun. Its rays can heat--and slow--the surface of the ice and cost racers precious hundredths of a second. Victory literally can hang on a passing cloud. It also depends on technique. Speed is generated by the piston power of the leg; the deeper the racing crouch the greater distance the piston can extend. Arms play no part, except on the turns, when racers swing them metronomically to develop what they call "the slingshot" effect. Skates are a streamlined amalgam of 16-in. blades and ankle-high boots of soft kangaroo leather.

For sprinting speed on the racing oval, Soviet Woman Skater Tatiana Averina is a worthy successor to the now retired world champion, Ard Schenk of The Netherlands. A college student from the central Russian city of Gorky, Averina, 25, holds the world records in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500-meter events. Other medal possibilities at Innsbruck: Teammates Lubov Sadchikova and Galina Stepanskaya, American Sheila Young and Japan's Makiko Nagaya. Averina has no equivalent among the men, but Soviets hold four of five world marks. Impressive, but somewhat deceptive. The records were all set at high altitude, in Alma-Ata, near the Chinese border. That might mean that American Peter Mueller, Holland's Hans van Helden or two Norwegians, Jan Egil Storholt and Sten Stensen, can upset the Soviets.

FIGURE SKATING Four events: women, men, pairs and dance. In pairs, the couple can skate apart, overhead lifts legal. In dance, skaters must be together, overhead lifts not permitted. In all four competitions, scoring divided into three parts: compulsory figures (30%), short program of compulsory skating (20%), long program of free skating (50%). In compulsory figures, skaters are judged by form. In short and long program, by form, appearance and musicality.

In women's competition, Dorothy Hamill and Diane de Leeuw will skate for the gold medal. In pairs, there should be no contest. Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev, a Russian duo, have won every major pairs title in recent years, and with good reason. Skating in synchronous movements and precise combinations, they mesh like the gears in a Swiss watch. Beyond form, they skate to their music with exquisite choreography and complete the most pyrotechnic maneuvers with consummate grace. They started skating together when Rodnina's original partner, Alexsei Ulanov, left her to marry another skater. Though married themselves, Rodnina and Zaitsev do not seem to be an emotional pairing off the ice: he is reserved and intellectual, she highly emotional.

In dance, again the odds heavily favor the Russians, who will send three couples to Innsbruck--the 1-2-3 finishers in the European championships. The best are Ludmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorskov, a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the ice.

In the men's competition, two Russians, Sergei Volkov, the current world champion, and Vladimir Kovalev, the runner-up, will try to outskate Britain's John Curry. In the recent European championships, Curry's elegant, balletic style left the Russians behind.

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