King of the Hill

By John Skow

A Yank wins the World Cup

On any given day, Ski Racer Phil Mahre of Yakima, Wash., cannot be sure of beating his own family: his twin brother Steve is just as talented and only slightly less consistent than he. But last week Phil became the first American in history to win the sport's highest award, the World Cup.

Mahre, 23, went into the last race of the season, a giant slalom at Laax, Switzerland, needing a third-place finish or better to edge out the great Swedish slalom and giant-slalom specialist Ingemar Stenmark in the winter-long Cup competition. At the end of the two giant-slalom runs at Laax, Mahre had a combined time of 2 min. 40.05 sec. That put him in second place for the day behind Alexander Zhirov, a rising Soviet star, who came in at 2 min. 39.80 sec. Stenmark was third, at 2 min. 40.24 sec. But Mahre's finish was enough to seal his Cup victory, giving him a season's total of 266 points to Stenmark's 260. Zhirov was third with 185 points, and Steve Mahre was fourth with 155.

Phil's triumph over his friend Stenmark, gold medal winner in the giant slalom at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, had been a long time coming. He was second to Stenmark in World Cup points in 1978, and third for each of the past two seasons. No one on the ski tour doubted that this likable, easygoing American had the ability or the courage to win. He had gritted out last year's third-place finish, and a silver medal in slalom at Lake Placid, on an ankle shattered the year before and still mending.

There was another equally important factor. When a change in Cup rules two seasons ago favored skiers who race all three Alpine events, Phil, a slalom and giant-slalom specialist, set about training intensively for the frightening and dangerous downhill. Stenmark is so accomplished at slalom and giant slalom that he not only wins effortlessly, but also controls the manner of his winning--typically skiing a safe, relatively slow run, and then a second run just fast enough to beat the field on combined time. Stenmark refused to enter downhill races last season. He was narrowly beaten in the World Cup by Andreas Wenzel of Liechtenstein, a three-event man.

Whether the attempt by World Cup officials to revise three-event racing makes sense is a matter for angry argument. Jean-Claude Killy, who won three gold medals at the 1968 Olympics, was the last man who could dominate all three events. There is general acknowledgment that Stenmark, by specializing, has carried slalom and giant-slalom skills further than Killy ever did. New three-event men, presumably, will not be able to reach Stenmark's brilliant but relatively narrow perfection. (Why not add a fourth event, exasperated slalomists grumble--like ski jumping, after all. Or a fifth--say, a 50-km cross-country race?)

At any rate, the new rules make World Cup scoring more complicated than triple-decker gin rummy. The most important change is to carefully limit the number of points a skier may score in one event. After reaching the maximum in that event, he must compete in one or both of the others to continue to score. Thus Phil Mahre, whose best downhill showing of the season was a ninth place on Kitzbuehel's difficult Hahnenkamm course, nonetheless has an advantage over skiers who do not take the risk. Stenmark decided this season that he needed those extra points to win the Cup, but in downhill practice last fall he tumbled, hit his head and suffered a concussion. Says he: "Downhill is a kamikaze business." Despite misgivings, he too entered the Kitzbuehel's downhill and came in well behind Winner Steve Podborski of Canada. Yet even this cautious performance earned him 15 World Cup points, indicating to some that the coring system is out of joint.

Races are still ultimately decided on the snow, however, and last week both Stenmark and Phil Mahre faulted momentarily under the pressure. At Borovets, Bulgaria, a second place in the G.S. would have won the Cup for Phil, but he wobbled in fifth behind Stenmark and the lanky, sandy-haired Zhirov, who won. A day later, a slalom win would have given Stenmark another five points to cushion his lead, but once more Zhirov won, and while a second place would again have wrapped it up for Phil, the wrong Mahre took second. Phil came in third behind his brother Steve. And so it was on to Laax, with the European press quoting Zhirov as saying that he would "do anything" to give the Cup victory to Stenmark.

Phil, who is friendly with nearly everyone on the tour, including the Soviets, ignored this nonsense. His mood seemed easy and contented. Downhill racing takes nerve, he said, but not much else. "I like the speed, the thrill, but otherwise it's boring," he added, "a bit like Evel Knievel on his motorcycle." He was glad that the deciding race of the season was the giant slalom, the technically most demanding of the races. Next? asked a reporter. "A summer doing absolutely no skiing," was the answer. Then Mahre, with a grin, returned to the subject at hand. "Ah, but you know, it's really the thing, that World Cup. Three events in top skiing. It's the best in the world you can ever hope to get."

--ByJohnSkow.

Reported by Robert Kroon/Laax

With reporting by Robert Kroon/Laax

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