Easy Reiter: Unheralded Austrian Has It Together

HAKUBA, Japan â€”  There were several Austrians who figured to take home medals from these Olympics.

Mario Reiter was not one of them.

On the contrary, Reiter was added to the Austrian team in the manner that one might heave a last bale on a departing hay truck.

That Reiter would claim his country’s first Alpine gold medal, ahead of Hermann Maier, Andreas Schifferer, Hannes Trinkl and the rest of Austria’s all-oom-pah Alpine team, was particularly sweet.

On Jan. 31, while the Austrian team was in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, for a World Cup stop, Reiter was told he would not be joining his country’s cast of stars in Nagano.

“I did not sleep well that Saturday night,� Reiter said.

The next morning, however, a coach called and said he was being added to the Olympic team for the combined event only.

“I’m grateful a few people believed in me,� he said.

Reiter, 27, a slalom specialist who has three World Cup victories and a world championship title in slalom in 1996, had been a washout on the circuit this season.

Slumps, of course, are not tolerated in Austria, and there are always half a dozen whiz-bang skiers ready to take over in a pinch.

Reiter knew it.

“The Austrian men’s team is the strongest team,� he said. “Only 12 people would come here, and I had no top-10 result.�

Reiter took full advantage of his reprieve, winning the slalom portion of the men’s combined Tuesday.

In the combined, the times of a two-run slalom and a shortened downhill are added.

Reiter held a 1.81-second advantage over Norway’s Lasse Kjus before the downhill but figured to surrender the edge because Kjus is a world-class downhiller and Reiter isn’t.

But Reiter, skiing last as the slalom leader, surprisingly turned in the fifth-fastest downhill run and ended up holding off Kjus by .59 overall to win the gold.

“I was sure I could handle the advantage of 1.8 seconds,� Reiter said. “But I thought it would be very close. I was really surprised [Kjus] was six-tenths behind.�

Kjus had an excuse, having already won the silver medal in the Olympic downhill in the morning.

But that didn’t mean Reiter didn’t have reason to gloat.

“Back home, they expected the downhillers to make a gold, and now it’s me,� Reiter said. “In Austria, it is a big surprise. For me, not so. This has been a goal I’ve been working on for a year now.�

Reiter’s gold probably earned him a spot in next week’s slalom at Shiga Kogen.

“Not many people believed in me,� he said. “But I did.�