French Snowball

Since skiers spend so much of their time upside down anyhow, it made a certain sort of sense to hold the World Alpine Ski Championships last week in Portillo, Chile -- where it was the middle of winter, and temperatures dipped to --4DEG. It was hardly surprising, either, that the French turned up in force and swept practically everything in sight. Who stays in Paris in August, except tourists?

Led by Jean-Claude Killy, 23, and Marielle Goitschel, 21, the French were heavy favorites at Portillo. U.S. hopes ran high, too, for a team that Coach Bob Beattie said was in the "best condition ever." Vermont's Billy Kidd, 23, was back in form, recovered from an ankle injury that had forced him out of competition after a series of spectacular victories in Europe last winter. And the rest of the U.S. squad had been training steadily for a full year -- at a cost of some $200,000.

Competition had not even begun at Portillo when disaster hit the U.S. team. Zipping down a slope at 60 m.p.h. in practice, Kidd lost his balance, skittered 200 yds., and snapped both bones in his right leg. Colorado's Jim Barrows injured a knee and an elbow, had to be scratched from the men's downhill; Idaho's Walter Falk fell during the race and suffered a concussion. The bright young star of the women's team, California's 16-year-old Penny McCoy, did give the U.S. one medal -- its only one --when she finished third in the ladies' special slalom. But a sprained ankle forced her out of the grand slalom.

The American injuries, plus an un accountably bad showing by the Austrian team, turned the world championships into a French snowball. Marielle Goitschel won both the ladies' giant slalom and the women's combined championship. Annie Famose won the ladies' special slalom, and Jean-Claude Killy streaked down the 1.7-mile course at an average speed of 63 m.p.h. to take the men's downhill. Then the "old man" of the French team, 26-year-old Guy Perillat, a shopkeeper from Chamonix who had never won a world title before, beat Killy at his own specialty: the giant slalom. By week's end, with only the men's special slalom and combined to go (and Killy favored to win both), French skiers had won five out of the six events, collected an even dozen of the 18 gold, silver and bronze medals awarded at the championships.

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