Italy's Deborah Compagnoni celebrates her victory in the women's Giant Slalom race during America's Opening World Cup event Friday, Nov. 21, 1997, in Park City, Utah. Douglas Pizac/Associated Press

Compagnoni, racing through heavy snow, wins giant slalom

Web posted November 22, 1997

By Rob Gloster
Associated Press

PARK CITY, Utah -- The streak has stretched to seven races, covering 10 months and four countries. That's how long it has been since Deborah Compagnoni lost a giant slalom.

Compagnoni extended her domination of the event Friday, skiing through heavy snow to win a World Cup race by more than three seconds. She has won six straight World Cup giant slaloms, a record.

``No, I'm not unbeatable,'' Compagnoni said. ``But giant slalom is my best event, so I'm 100 percent confident and it comes easy.''

Compagnoni, spraying plumes of new snow behind her as she worked down the course, was fastest on both runs to finish in 2 minutes, 52.60 seconds. It was the 11th World Cup giant slalom victory for the Italian.

The reigning Olympic champion and a two-time defending world champion, Compagnoni has not lost a giant slalom since Jan. 3 -- when she finished second in a World Cup race to compatriot Sabina Panzanini.

Compagnoni won two World Cup giant slaloms last January -- at Zwiesel, Germany, and at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; she was the gold medalist at the World Championships in Sestriere, Italy, in February, and finished last season with a World Cup win at Vail, Colo., in March.

She began this season by winning a World Cup giant slalom at Tignes, France, in late October.

However, she's still far from the men's World Cup giant slalom record for consecutive wins. Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden won 14 straight from 1978-80.

``It's becoming routine, but it's a nice routine,'' Compagnoni said. ``It's a confirmation of all the work that I'm doing.''

Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria was second Friday in 2:56.01 -- a whopping 3.41 seconds behind Compagnoni. Andrine Flemmen of Norway was third in 2:56.46.

None of the six American women who started the first run were among the top 30 finishers who qualify for the second run. The poor results were not unexpected -- the U.S. team has little experience in technical races.

``We know these kids can ski better, but right now there's a mental part that's missing,'' said Marjan Cernigoj, the slalom and giant slalom coach for the U.S. women's team. ``They are not confident enough at the start.''

Compagnoni elected to start first on the opening run Friday, and no one was able to come close to her time of 1:26.69 as a steady snow made the course slippery and caused skids by many competitors.

Compagnoni had a few problems on the bottom portion of the second run, with her left ski lifting off the ground completely at one point. But she held such a commanding lead at that point that even such mistakes did not prevent her from winning by a huge margin.

``On the first run, I didn't ski to my limit, so I guess that shows what kind of condition I'm in,'' she said. ``The first run was more difficult because you couldn't see.''