Bruno Kernen was ready for early retirement just over a year ago.
"I was doing poorly in races in the United States . . . and called a friend of mine at home and said to find me a job," Kernen said.Fortunately for Kernen, his friend talked him out of it.
Kernen, winless this season on the World Cup circuit, was the surprise winner of a crash-filled downhill Saturday at the World Alpine Ski Championships.
The 24-year-old from Switzerland, the silver medalist in men's combined on Thursday, was clocked in 1 minute, 51.11 seconds. Lasse Kjus of Norway was second in 1:51.18 followed by Kristian Ghedina of Italy in 1:51.46.
Werner Franz and Josef Strobl of Austria, and Luc Alphand of France had spectacular falls in what is traditionally the most pressure-packed race of the worlds. Many downhillers didn't like the 10,824-foot Kandahar Banchetta course, icy and filled with turns at the top.
"I am really surprised with my victory," Kernen said. "In training I was really unhappy with how I did. But that shows that practice and the race are completely different things."
Kernen's 1993-94 season was wiped out by a knee injury. His comeback went slowly in 1994-95 and he made that phone call last season following a string of poor performances.
"At one point in a World Cup event in the United States, I was 45th in a super-G and had lost all my confidence," he said. "I wondered if there was still a future in my life for skiing."
There was.
Kernen came from also-ran finishes to win consecutive downhills on Jan. 19-20, 1996, at Veysonnaz, Switzerland - his only two World Cup wins.
"That pretty much restored the idea I could win," he said.
Just three weeks ago, Kernen escaped serious injury during a spectacular crash at Wengen, Switzerland, a spill that caused him to wear a neckbrace for several days.
"Obviously for me, winning here is sort of a dream," he said.
It was more of a nightmare for Alphand, the Frenchman who leads this season's World Cup downhill and super-G standings and is favored to win the overall World Cup title.
Alphand went down in a frightening spill on the top part of the course, doing the splits and crashing face first after coming over a jump. He got to his feet, slammed a ski and ski pole into the snow and walked off the course.
"It's the first time I've fallen in three seasons," Alphand said. "It happens, but today was the wrong day."
Franz and Strobl crashed on the same sharp right-hand turn on the lower half. Franz's was the the more spectacular on a day when speeds reached almost 80 mph.
Losing the edge of his outside ski, Franz skidded out of control and crashed into a safety net. He had to be helped to his feet, and he suffered a broken wrist and finger.
The same turn also cost Fritz Strobl of Austria (no relation to Josef) time as he struggled to keep from falling. The quickest racer in training, Strobl finished fourth, only 0.01 seconds behind Ghedina.
At that point, Ghedina - having beaten Fritz Strobl and with Alphand out - thought he had won. But Ghedina, who started No. 9, wasn't counting on Kernen, who was the 14th starter, or Kjus, who was 18th.
"I'm disappointed with third," Ghedina said. "Winning gold in Italy would have been the absolute best. I didn't expect Kernen to be ahead of me. In training he wasn't that good."
Defending world downhill champion Patrick Ortlieb of Austria finished eighth.
Jason Rosener of Breckenridge, Colo., was the top American, finishing 16th. Chad Fleischer was 18th, followed by AJ Kitt in 23rd and Daron Rahlves in 31st.
U.S. large hill championships
Casey Colby of Lake Placid, N.Y., won the first national ski jumping title of his career Saturday by making the two longest jumps of the U.S. large hill championships in Westby, Wis.
Colby took the first-round lead with a 116.5-meter jump and held off Randy Weber of Steamboat Springs, Colo., who won both the large hill and normal hill titles last year. Colby went 113.5 meters on his final jump to finish with 239.8 points.
Weber, a four-time national champ, went 113 meters on each jump and finished at 234.1 points. The bronze medal went to Taylor Hoffman, also of Lake Placid, with 199.8 points on jumps of 99 and 111 meters.