Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001

DORFMEISTER WINS GS OPENER; KOZNICK TOP AMERICAN

SOELDEN, Austria (Oct. 27) -- Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria, looking
as much at home on a giant slalom course as she did winning the gold
medal in downhill at last February's World Championships, tore through a
sun-splashed second run Saturday to win the opening race of the Olympic
season by .41 over Sonja Nef of Switzerland. Kristina Koznick
(Burnsville, MN) had the best U.S. result, finishing 15th.

Dorfmeister, second behind Nef in the first run, finished with a two-run
total of 2:28.38 with Nef, who had won six straight giant slaloms and is
the defending World Cup and reigning world champion, timed in 2:28.79.
Frenchwoman Regine Cavagnoud hung-up the fastest second run and finished
third in 2:29.98. Completing the top five on the Rettenbach Glacier:
Canadian Allison Forsyth of Canada in fourth place and Maria Jose Rienda
Contreras of Spain in fifth.

"It's a perfect season start. Winning here was a major goal for me,"
Dorfmeister said. "I was very fast in the lower part but i was a little
surprised. I thought with the softer snow it would be tougher, so I
really attacked to make-up time." She overcame a .15 deficit after the
first run.

Nef told reporters, "Yes, there was a lot of pressure on me with the win
streak, but not as much as at the World Championships last February. I
skied very well in the steep section but made some mistakes at the
bottom. I'm still happy with my finish."

Although she trained a lot of GS early in the summer, Cavanoud explained
she had suffered a bad fall in training in August, suffering a
concussion, which has taken time to recover from. "I was aiming for a
top result here but not thinking about the podium," she explained.

For the three U.S. women, Koznick was 26th in the first run and, with
the eight-fastest second run, moved into the top 15; her total time was
2:31.55. Schleper, 20th in the first run, finished 28th (2:32.27) while
Caroline Lalive (Steamboat Springs, CO), starting 51st, failed to make
the second-run cut.

Koznick, who conceded she was "more nervous than normal" before the
race, was 26th after the first run and, starting fifth in the flip-30
format for the final run, attacked to move up substantially. "It's like
a preseason race. We have one more month until Aspen [The Chevy Truck
Aspen Winternational Nov. 22-25], until the season really gets into full
swing. No one wants to peak now," she said. "To walk away from here and
to have done some good things is all anyone wants. For everybody to be
three-quarters ready but to be on a challenging hill is hard...

"In my heart, I wanted to be top 15, but I knew my [GS} training wasn't
going that great. My slalom training has been great but my GS was just
okay. I knew I could be top 20 and if I did that I think I'm set-up
nicely for Aspen. Actually, about two weeks ago I was upset one day in
training. 'I'm on a plateau and I feel like I'm hitting my head against
the wall.' But in GS I went from 70th [in the world to start the 2000
season] to being in the top 30, but the jumps don't keep going like
that. This year," Koznick said, "technically, I'm much better in GS than
last year."

She said one major goal this winter is "to be unafraid, when I get to
the finish to know I put everything on the line. I was pretty nervous
this morning -- I don't know why -- but I went for it. I made one huge
mistake in the first run, but I got the opportunity to go again and I
definitely feel like I showed myself this GS is something I can do, can
do top 10, top 10 and gradually break in. I still had a little mistake
on my second run but I was much more aggressive."

Schleper, who had a podium in both GS and slalom a year ago, said making
the top-30 cutoff in the first run after hyper-extending her lweft leg
Friday in training helped her relax a bit. "This has a strong pitch but
it doesn't seem that hard. I thought I had it scouted pretty good. It
was kidn of weird [Friday] -- I caught an edge and hyper-extended my
leg. It was pretty good today, so I could pick it up...and I got a
result," she said.

"If my results get better every time, it'll be a good GS year," she
said.

The men race Sunday in another GS and the U.S. Ski Team will have seven
starters: Erik Schlopy (Park City, UT), who is following the best season
a U.S. man has had in GS since Phil Mahre won the overall and GS titles
in 1983; Bode Miller (Franconia, NH), who rebounding from tore knee
ligaments at World Championships and an aggressive rehab program
prescribed by Dr. Richard Steadman that required no surgery; Daron
Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA); Thomas Vonn (Newburgh, NY), Dane Spencer
(Boise, ID), Chip Knight (Stowe, VT), and Casey Puckett (Aspen, CO).


CAFE DE COLOMBIA WORLD CUP
Rettenbach Glacier
Soelden, AUT - Oct. 27
Women's GS (Season Opener)
1. Michaela Dorfmeister, Austria, 2:28.38
2. Sonja Nef, Switzerland, 2:28.79
3. Regine Cavagnoud, France, 2:28.98
4. Allison Forsyth, Canada, 2:30.51
5. Maria Jose Rienda Contreras, Spain, 2:30.64
6. Selina Heregger, Austria, 2:30.86
7. Silke Bachmann, Italy, 2:30.87
8. Ylva Nowen, Sweden, 2:30.92
9. Brigitte Obermoser, Austria, 2:30.93
10. Anna Ottosson, Sweden, 2:30.94
        -
15. Kristina Koznick, Burnsville, Minn., 2:31.55
28. Sarah Schleper, Vail, Colo., 2:32.27
Did not qualify for 2nd Run: Caroline Lalive, Steamboat Springs, Colo.