Luck brought Michael Von Gruenigen No. 3. The lack of it brought Lasse Kjus No. 2 a third time. Von Gruenigen embraced it, smiled at it and joked about his good luck. Kjus simply wondered when it would be his turn. He'd done everything humanly possible.
Saturday's giant slalom in America's Opening in Park City, was the third GS of the young World Cup season. Von Gruenigen has won all three, while Kjus has finished runner-up in all three.The two previous races, however, did not compare to the drama of Saturday's finish. After two runs, through nearly 100 gates in nearly two and a half minutes of high-speed skiing, only two-hundredths of a second separated the two. About as much time as it takes to blink.
Noticeably missing from all of this drama was Alberto Tomba, the flamboyant Italian who has dominated GS racing. He had a poor first run and was sitting in eighth place going into the second run. Midway down the course he leaned too far into the hill, sat down, popped up on one ski and sailed out of the course and out of the race.
The fact that Von Gruenigen - a Swiss skier - was in first after the first run with the fastest time of 1 minute, 12.97 seconds, and Kjus - a Norwegian skier - was second at 1:13.06, was not lost to the crowd there to watch the World Cup event or to the racers themselves.
One racer commented to a teammate at the finish, "No, it couldn't happen again."
On the second run, the order of the top 15 was reversed. Fredrik Nyberg of Sweden, starting 15th, set the pace. His second-run time of 1:14.67 held through 10 skiers.
Hans Knaus of Austria, broke the string by taking the lead with a two-run time of 2:28.93.
On his second run, Kjus looked perfect. His line was good, his speed was noticeably fast, and his body control was excellent. Not once was he thrown off balance. His time was the fastest for the second run, 1:14.44, which gave him more than full second lead over Knaus.
Out of the gate, Von Gruenigen was slow. At the first interval, he was well behind Kjus and was still behind at the second interval. If ever Kjus had a chance, it was now. Von Gruenigren was, indeed, vulnerable at this point.
The clocks were not to break tradition. Von Gruenigen ran a slower 1:14.51 time, but it was enough to beat Kjus overall - 2:27.48 to 2:47.50.
"I felt I had a chance when I saw Michael's time on the first interval. I felt it slip away when I saw he was doing better after the second. When I saw he beat me I felt terrible. When it's so close, like this, it's a terrible feeling to lose," Kjus said after the race.
Von Gruenigen was surprised - even shocked - that he had beaten Kjus again.
"When it's that close, it is lucky to win. I was just lucky today," he said at the finish.
He said that while on the course, he didn't realize he was behind early in the second run.
He added, through an interpreter, that he knew he had made some mistakes on the upper section of the course and knew he had to take some chances to make up time on the lower. Whatever he did, it worked.
Kjus gave a deep sigh as the roar from the crowd told him who had won.
Three races and three second places, "maybe I can have luck in the slalom," he admitted after the race.
The slalom will begin today at 10 a.m. on the face of C.B.'s Run at the Park City Ski Area. The second run is scheduled for 1 p.m.
The bright spot of the U.S. Team was the one skier who made it into the field of 30 qualifying for a second run and a chance at World Cup points. Daron Rahlves of California, a former Jet Ski champion, started in 38th place but put in a solid first run to moved to 25th to qualify for the second run. A second-run time of 1:16.65 moved him into 21st place.
He said he was satisfied with his two runs on Saturday, but not happy.
"I could have done better. I may have been too aggressive. I should have let up a little and been smoother. This early in the season, though, it's a confidence builder to make it into the top 30," he said.
Kyle Rasmussen, also with the U.S. Team, started out with one of the best times on the upper section of the course, but was slow on the bottom sections and missed the cut by nearly a full second. Christopher Puckett also tried but missed the cut.
Today's slalom event should prove interesting. Kjus is a better slalom skier than Von Gruenigen, but Tomba could be better than them all. He was the overall slalom champion in World Cup last year. He finished the year with seven slalom wins and four GS victories.
Two years ago, Tomba fell in the GS and returned to miss winning the slalom by only a few hundredths of a second.
One thing that could put an added burden on racers and crews would be the arrival of a predicted snowstorm. The course on Saturday was made difficult by sunshine and warm weather. Snow would change the entire complexion of the race course and possibly the outcome.