Crash Course Frenchman Wins Treacherous Downhill
It definitely wasn’t Hermann Maier’s day at the Winter Olympics.
The day belonged to Jean-Luc Cretier, a French customs officer with a family history of doing well when the Olympics come to Japan.
It also belonged to the United States’ luge team, which won its first Olympic medals ever, a silver and a bronze, in doubles.
Maier, the men’s downhill favorite from Austria, was eliminated in a spectacular crash on - and off - the slushy Happo’one course on Thursday.
Cretier, cousin of 1972 Sapporo Olympics slalom silver-medalist Daniele Debernard, one-upped his relative by claiming the gold medal. Cretier, the first Frenchman to win an Olympic downhill since Jean-Claude Killy in 1968, was timed in 1 minute, 50.11 seconds.
Norway’s Lasse Kjus took the silver medal, four-tenths of a second back of Cretier, and Austria’s Hannes Trinkl the bronze.
Defending gold-medalist Tommy Moe of the U.S. finished 12th.
Maier did not return for the downhill portion of the men’s combined race, in which his teammates Guenther Mader and Christian Mayer took gold and bronze medals. Norway’s Kjus took his second silver of the day.
Meanwhile, Americans claimed their Olympic medals in luge, behind the German pair of Stefan Krausse and Jan Behrendt, the 1992 gold medalists. The Germans finished in 1:41.105, 22 hundredths of a second ahead of Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer. Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin captured bronze.
Maier, winner of 10 World Cup races this season, went airborne for about 30 yards in the downhill, blasting two safety nets before sliding several yards off the side of the slope. He managed to struggle to his feet and plod up the hill, complaining of shoulder and hip injuries “and a very big headache,” according to a spokesman.
He was one of five of the top-seeded 15 starters who either missed gates or crashed on the sun-warmed, slippery course that saw Austria’s hopes of a downhill sweep disappear in clouds of wet, flying snow.
Andreas Schifferer, Austria’s leader in World Cup downhill points, finished seventh, two spots ahead of American Kyle Rasmussen.
While Moe said he was surprised at Meier’s wipeout, he was pleased with Chretier’s victory. “I would rather have a Frenchman than an Austrian win any day,” Moe said.
He said he appreciates Cretier, who entered the race ranked No. 4 in World Cup points, “because he has a family at home and he’s a real nice guy. He’s always in a good mood. He says hello to you.”
Of the four skiers preceding Moe, three veered off course and the other, Italy’s Luca Cattaneo, was air-lifted to a Nagano hospital after injuring his left leg in a spill strikingly similar Maier’s.
Maier lost control on a turn just above the Alpen jump, which was changed minutes before the start because officials feared high winds would make the area dangerous. That part of the course was added at the insistence of international ski federation officials, who waged a two-year battle with organizers over the length of the course.
In all, eight skiers crashed and 15 of 43 entrants did not finish. Among them were American AJ Kitt, who missed a gate.
“I was lucky to get through,” said Cretier, 31. “I hope (Maier) did not suffer any injury, but this is part of the downhill race.”
The downhill had been postponed three times, hampered by snow, wind, rain, fog, thunder and lightning. High winds delayed Friday’s start about 50 minutes.
Mader won the combined title with a downhill time of 1:34.83, followed by Kjus in 1:34.99. Mayer was another .07 behind Kjus. All the U.S. entrants were eliminated during Thursday’s slalom.
In the luge, Martin, a 24-year-old who thought at one point his Olympic moment would come in soccer, and Grimmette, 27, were a late and unlikely pairing for this Olympics.
Martin got involved in luge at a 1988 tryout on wheeled sleds held each year by a previous luger, Bonny Warner. Warner, a three-time Olympian, had finished sixth a few months earlier at the Calgary Winter Games, at the time, the best U.S. Olympic finish, and had then retired to pursue a career as a United Airlines pilot.
Warner, now a Boeing 777 captain on the San Francisco-London run and a CBS commentator in Nagano, recommended Martin to the U.S. Luge Association as a developmental rider.
Martin had teamed with Dan Warren in doubles from 1990-96, but Martin broke up the team in an effort to pursue a doubles career. Grimmette sledded with Jon Edwards four years ago in the Lillehammer Winter Games to finish fourth, the best previous Olympic finish for U.S. sledders.
Edwards retired before the 1996-97 season, and Martin and Grimmette decided to compete together. They finished ninth on the World Cup circuit a year ago in their first season.
Martin and Grimmette were heavy favorites coming into the race.
They had won four of the six World Cup races this winter including the Jan. 25 finals in Winterberg, Germany.