Tomba’s star still shines seven years after retirement

TURIN, Italy – Asked what advice he’d give Bode Miller, Alberto Tomba threw his head back and let out a roar of laughter that bounced around the hotel lobby’s marble floor.

“Don’t win too much,” Tomba said during a recent interview with The Associated Press.

“Then they won’t make stuff up about you. Because if you win all the time, they won’t write about your victories,” he said, “they’ll write about your private life or things you say.”

The man known as La Bomba still is a star in Italy and figures to be in the spotlight during the Feb. 10-26 Turin Olympics – more than seven years after he retired from the slopes.

He’s still burly, still concerned about his image (his manager didn’t want a photographer present during the hour-long chat with the AP because Tomba had been traveling all day), still charming and quick with a joke.

Oh, and still fond of referring to himself in the third person.

Current skiers grew up watching him, some try to emulate his go-for-broke competitive style, and all would probably love to accomplish just a fraction of what he did.

Italy’s top skier at the moment and best medal hope for Turin, Giorgio Rocca, calls his predecessor a “legend” and acknowledges: “There is just one Tomba.”

Someone who would never argue with that assessment: Tomba himself.

After all, this is a man who, after his very first World Cup victory in November 1987, told reporters: “I am really talented.”

Now 39, Tomba is wary when present-day stars such as Miller or Rocca are compared to him. Of Rocca, Tomba said: “Remember, Tomba won the Olympics at 20. He’s already 30. I won 35 slaloms, he’s at nine or 10. … There’s more to do if you want to be Alberto’s heir.”

When Italians speak about the upcoming Olympics, it doesn’t take long for Tomba’s name to arise. His exploits on and off the course made him an icon.

Tomba, who said he considered making a comeback about two or three years after retiring, spends his time making appearances for personal sponsors and as an ambassador for the Turin Olympics.

He helped lobby the International Olympic Committee when the city bid for these games, and one of his endorsement deals is with a company sponsoring the torch relay.

His face beams on billboards around the country, including a giant sign looking out from the ancient Roman amphitheater in Verona.

When Rocca won a fourth straight World Cup slalom this month, Italian TV made as big a deal over Tomba’s reaction to the performance as the race itself.

Tomba won’t be analyzing races during the Olympics: “I’d rather look an athlete in the eyes and tell him what I think than say things on TV,” he said, adding that he occasionally offers tips to Italian skiers.

He’ll certainly be part of the show next month.

That includes the opening ceremony, although Tomba won’t acknowledge that he’ll be the final torchbearer.

Nor will anyone from the Torino Organizing Committee. That honor has traditionally been kept under wraps.

Everyone in Italy assumes it’ll be him.

“No one knows. It’s not a given. It’s supposed to be a surprise,” Tomba said.

He certainly provided many for himself and his fans during his career, one that might never have happened if not for a chance friendship his father struck up with a ski instructor.

As a boy, Tomba loved cycling, tennis and soccer. But his father persuaded Tomba and his brother to hit the slopes.

Tomba, from near Bologna, usually lost races when he was 10 or 11. He didn’t really blossom until his teens.

The rest is history: three golds and two silvers at the Winter Games; the first Alpine skier with medals at three Olympics; 50 World Cup race victories; an overall World Cup title; and two golds and three bronzes at World Championships.