TORINO: Alpine: Home-field disadvantage as Italians struggle

TORINO: Alpine: Home-field disadvantage as Italians struggle{mosimage}SESTRIERE, Italy – The United States Ski Team may be taking some heat from the media for falling so dramatically short of its stated goal of eight medals, but the media heat directed at the alpine team of host country Italy has been scalding.

The final blow came in Saturday evening’s slalom race when all four of the Italian men failed to finish, including prerace favorite Giorgio Rocca.

According to Maria Rosa Quario, former Italian World Cup ski racer and currently a journalist for Sciare Magazine and Il Jiournali, the Italian alpine team came into these Games with the hopes of three medals, one of them gold. She explained, “Alpine ski racing is the most important winter sport in Italy. It gets the most money and attention and receives the most money, yet it is the only one without the medals.” In fact the last men’s Olympic medal for Italy was won in 1994, when Alberto Tomba came from 17th place after the first run to win the slalom.

The Tomba era is now well into the past, although the national hero was at the finish of the slalom waving to his still-adoring fans. The best the Italians could finish was Rocca’s fifth in combined, but the only other top 10s from the men came from Peter Fill, ninth in the combined, and Patrick Staudacher, ninth in downhill.

The women also suffered limited forays into the top 10 with Lucia Recchia and Nadia Fanchini putting up a pair of eighths in super G and giant slalom, respectively.

As an indicator of Olympic team performance, Ski Racing calculated Olympic Nations Cup standings using World Cup points assigned to each race (see Web story). The Italians currently rank third in the World Cup Nations Cup, just a whisker behind the U.S. team, but with eight of 10 races completed at the Olympics, the Italian team had slumped to eighth in the Olympic Nations Cup calculations.

The media is raging and has called for changes in team leadership and team composition. But the Italian ski federation is not going to rush to judgment. According to Quario, the team will decide everything at the end of the season, saying the problems are not systemic and the team’s failure to perform at these Games is due primarily to succumbing to the pressure of competing at home.

Team coaches found some consolation in noting that Rocca was .4 seconds faster than gold-medal winner Raich, but what they didn’t mention was that split time came about 30 seconds into the first run. Regarding his inability to finish the slalom, Rocca said, “When you want to go fast, mistakes happen. It’s a shame because it’s my last time in Italy in the Olympics.”

Rocca continued, “I have no regrets. It was a mistake; I put too much pressure on my outside ski. It was a great experience, but now I think about winning the World Cup title … I’m sorry for them (the fans), but they still love me and I feel close to them.”