Skier Has Unique Double

Luc Alphand of France became the first skier to win two World Cup events within a few hours by taking both races in a unique downhill doubleheader.

Weather problems, sometimes too little snow and sometimes too much, forced organizers to squeeze two downhills into one day, the first time that has been done on the World Cup circuit. One of the two races originally was scheduled for St. Anton, Austria, early in the season.

Alphand was timed in 1 minute, 40.97 seconds, for the first race. Less than three hours later, he took the second in 1:40.33.

The only other time there were two World Cup races at the same site on the same day was at Kitzbuehel, where a downhill and a slalom were run a few hours apart in 1987.