Up From Slavery on the Slopes

Austrian Karl Schranz, the last great all-around skier before Zurbriggen, never won Olympic gold. Schranz was booted from the 1972 Games for the way he permitted "use of his name and pictures in commercial advertisements." He made a reported $30,000 that year. Others had similar contracts, but Olympics Chieftain Avery (known sardonically as "Slavery") Brundage wanted to use him as an example to fight growing commercialism in skiing. It didn't work. Skiers today are the most heavily sponsored of all Winter Olympians. Zurbriggen, a sporting-goods store on skis, wears seven of his products in action, from goggles to boots. His estimated 1987 take, approaching $1 million, was paid through a perfectly legal Swiss team trust fund. If Brundage weren't dead, this would kill him.