Trial by Snow

The spectators sprawled on gaudy blankets at the bottom of the runs, or strapped on skis and slogged up through the slopes for a closehand look at the world's best skiers. Germans bellowed at each other across the turns; Italians shouted "Avanti!" as their blue-clad skiers hurtled past.

But to the competitors at California's Squaw Valley, the eighth Winter Olympics was an agonizing and lonely trial. Teammates drilled each other by the hour on the turns and perils of every run, tried to relax by taking long walks or playing table tennis. Before their runs, some skiers even retched in the snow.

On skis, the U.S. men in general fared about as poorly as expected; the week's best effort was ninth place in the slalom by Tom Corcoran, a graduate of Harvard Business School. France's Jean Vuarnet, 27, a studious innkeeper who has written three books on his sport, won the downhill (on unwaxed plastic-surfaced metallic skis) by throttling back on the tricky stretches like the bumpy "Waterfall," hurtling where the going was easy. Stung by defeat, the haughty Austrian team benched famed Karl Schranz, 21, and Anderl Molterer, 28, the sleek playboy who was gamboling away his off hours in nearby Crystal Bay. Skiing in their place, a long-faced farmer from Kitzbuehel named Ernst Hinterseer startled everyone by winning the tricky, hip-swinging slalom.

The Girls. The celebrity of Squaw Valley quickly became New Hampshire's Penny Pitou, a sturdy, round-cheeked blonde who looks like an angel and cusses like a deck hand. Years ago she tucked her hair under a cap, made the boys call her "Tom," and won all the honors in a male high school meet. But at Squaw Valley, Penny had learned how photogenic a flowing cloud of blonde hair can be, between races coyly nuzzled Boy Friend Egon Zimmerman of the Austrian ski team (who announced that he would marry her if he could find a job in the U.S.).

After finishing second to Germany's quiet Heidi Biebl in the downhill. Penny crossed the line in the giant slalom with a sputter of profanity and a ready alibi: "I'm so sick, I don't care what my time is. Bad chest cold." But Penny learned quickly enough that her time had made her second again, just .1 sec. behind Switzerland's beaming, broad-faced Yvonne Ruegg. Still, Penny had only to finish tenth in the slalom to compile the best overall women's record at the Olympics, thus automatically win the title of 1960 Combined Champion bestowed by the Federation Internationale de Ski.

The Fall. Then Penny ran up against a lithe (5 ft. 5 in., 115 Ibs.), tousleheaded Canadian named Anne Heggtveit. Poised and perky at 21, Anne lost 12 Ibs. while training for the Olympics, decided to concentrate on the slalom, where agility counts more than weight. She contented herself with a respectable twelfth in both the downhill and giant slalom. But right from the start of the slalom, Anne put the pressure on Penny, darted through the first steep, 53-gate course in a blazing time of 54 sec. that put her first and left her U.S. rival dangling in seventh place. Nor did Anne let up on the second course, finishing in 55.6 sec. Hell-bent to save her glory, Penny fell and bumped far down the slope on the seat of her pants. Penny ended up a dejected 33rd, and cool Anne Heggtveit was F.I.S. champion. "If I could have stood up, I would have been world champion," shrugged Penny. "But I couldn't stand up." Only consolation: the U.S.'s Betsy Snite finished 3.3 sec. behind Anne to take second in the slalom.

P: Let down by its girl skiers, the U.S. rested its hopes for individual gold medals on a pair of figure skaters. The confidence was well placed. In the climactic free skating, New York City's blonde Carol Heiss, 20, four-time world champion since she took a silver medal in 1956, flashed a smile that was only a trifle too tight, soared effortlessly through an intricate routine (the show stopper: two successive, whirling leaps taken from alternate skates), and easily won her gold medal to keep a promise made to her dying mother in 1956. Daughter of a baker and a junior at New York University, Carol insists that she will not cash in on her hard-earned skill as the world's finest skater. Said she: "I want to think about the next dance as the most important thing in my future."

P: After finishing second in the compulsory figures, Colorado's Dave Jenkins, 23, a second-year student at Ohio's Western Reserve University Medical School, put on such an acrobatic display that one judge gave him a rare perfect score for execution, won a gold medal to match the one Big Brother Hayes Alan brought home from the 1956 Olympics.

As expected, the big overall winner was the Soviet Union with seven gold medals and 165 1/2 unofficial points (second: Sweden with three gold medals, 71 1/2 points), thanks largely to strength in such events as speed skating and cross-country skiing. The U.S., with three gold medals and 71 points, finished third.

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