Skiing Roundup : Zurbriggen Opens With Win in Austrian World Cup Race

Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland, the high profile downhill skier from this year’s Calgary Olympics, opened the World Cup season Sunday by winning a super giant slalom at Schladming, Austria.

Zurbriggen, the Olympic downhill gold medalist, covered the 6,628-foot course in 1 minute 31.65 seconds.

Trailing Zurbriggen, defending World Cup overall champion, was France’s Franck Piccard, Olympic Super-G champion at Calgary. Piccard’s time was 1:31.7.

Third in 1:32.15 was Leonard Stock, the 1980 Olympic downhill winner, and fourth was Alberto Tomba of Italy, who won two gold medals at Calgary.

It was Zurbriggen’s 32nd World Cup victory, second best on the all-time list behind Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark, who has 85.

“The first race of the season is always something special because you don’t know what kind of condition you’re in,” Zurbriggen said. “But I’m happy, and it gives me a lot of confidence.”

Tomba was fourth in 1:32.31, despite being the first racer down the course. It was his best result in the Super-G, a downhill giant slalom hybrid.

Tomba is known more for the technical disciplines and avoids the speed races such as the downhill. He won the slalom and giant slalom at Calgary.

Pro ski tour newcomer Niklas Lindqvist put together back-to-back perfect runs and edged tour veteran Edvin Halsnes of Norway to win the America’s Opening giant slalom at Park City, Utah.

Steve Mahre and Phil Mahre, who were making their pro comeback, were eliminated. Steve lost both runs in the second round to Tomaz Cerkovnik of Yugoslavia, and Phil lost the first run and couldn’t make up the difference to Halsnes in the second run of the third round.