FLYING HIGH ON OLYMPIC DREAMS\Californians have rarely been among the elite on the slopes, but\these five skiers and snowboarders are making an impact on their\nation's teams.

Byline: Brett Pauly Daily News Staff Writer

Look back at America's greatest Alpine skiers and you find surprisingly few cut their teeth on the world-class slopes of California.

In fact, outside of Tamara McKinney, the Golden State has not been well represented on World Cup and Olympic podiums.

Well, that's changing as rapidly as the sport. With snowboarding now an Olympic sport and freestyle skiing fully entrenched as a medal event, up-and-coming Californians are making a major impact on the U.S. Ski and Snowboard teams.

Huntington Beach's Annemarie Uliasz earned a silver medal in the half-pipe last month at the inaugural World Snowboard Championships in Lienz, Austria. Teammate Dustin Del Giudice of Mammoth Lakes is fourth on a men's half-pipe squad that enjoyed a 1-2-3 medals sweep in the event.

The best hope for men's medals at this week's World Alpine Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, ride squarely on the skis of Truckee super-G specialist Daron Rahlves and veteran downhiller Kyle Rasmussen of Angels Camp.

And in the freestyle skiing arena, Tiburon's Jonny Moseley is on top of the world, ranked first in moguls, overall and combined.

Here's a closer look at the state's talent: For years Annemarie Uliasz (pronounced YOU-lie-iss) had dreamed of competing in the Olympics, yet her sport wasn't considered Olympic-caliber. With snowboarding's recent approval as a medal event at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, the 22-year-old pre-med student feels vindicated.

"It seems like in the past it started out as a fad and that it would disappear," the UC Santa Barbara senior said during her stay in Austria. "But now that it is an Olympic sport, people will take it more seriously. The numbers prove that there are more and more snowboarders."

And Uliasz's numbers prove that she is a strong contender for gold at Nagano.

With World Cup half-pipe champ Sabrina Sadeghi of Aspen, Colo., recovering from knee surgery, Uliasz has stepped up to retain the second overall half-pipe ranking she earned last year.

"She's calm, but she's daring," said sports commentator Ava Gardner, who profiled Uliasz in Lienz for a recent segment of "ABC's Wide World of Sports." "She's into gymnastics and diving, and it's helped her balance and confidence."

Tail-grabs and 540-degree spins are her best moves. She strives to land her McTwist (an inverted 540) with more consistency.

According to Gardner, she has the steel to succeed. Considering she missed only one World Cup event after tumbling 300 feet and injuring her ankle in an avalanche in France last January, anything seems possible.

"She's more mature than the rest of them (her teammates)," Gardner said. "They are all very nice, but they are all kind of out there. It's just an extension of the beach - 'Gnarly, man.' "

On tour she enjoys the camaraderie of traveling with foreign teams and is intrigued by the cultural differences at each stop. "Last year we had heated toilets in Japan," she said. "This year we're staying in traditional accommodations, where there are no toilets at all, just a hole in the ground."

Uliasz plans to graduate this spring and pursue a career in medicine after the Olympics.

"It's remarkable how she juggles sports and her studies," Gardner said.

Seems medicine and McTwists are a winning combo. Dustin Del Giudice (pronounced del JOO-dih-see) calls himself "the fourth-place king."

That's a pretty good assessment for a guy who is in the fourth position on the world's premier half-pipe team, who was fourth overall in World Cup rankings earlier this season and whose best international finish is, you guessed it, fourth - several times.

Predictably, he aspires to make it to the podium, and soon.

"I'm working on that as we speak, getting a better run together," he said from Lienz, where he finished a disappointing 17th in the half-pipe. "I've got the amplitude to do it. I just need to learn one more rotation. My alley-oops and 540s are strong. I was working on 720s today."

He pulls no punches discussing his shortcomings in the World Championships.

"I just wasn't into it for some reason. My brain fell out of my head and onto the pipe, and I was scrambling for it," said the 21-year-old Bishop native, whose father, Pete, was a top Southland surfer and diver.

Though his half-pipe teammates - Ross Powers of South Londonderry, Vt., defending World Cup champ Lael Gregory of Eugene, Ore., and Rob Kingwill of Jackson Hole, Wyo. - took the medals in Austria, Del Giudice feels their fortunes will rub off on him.

"It makes me stronger," he explained. "I get to practice and train with them and build my routine around theirs."

When he's not strapped into his board, Del Giudice can be found surfing, free diving, hiking, skeet shooting, bird hunting or reading books by Anne Rice, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. He got his first taste for fly-fishing last summer, landing a 1-pound rainbow trout at Crowley Lake, and has a hankering to learn the finer points of selecting flies and roll casting. With one fourth-place finish in World Cup super-G and an overall ranking of 14th going into the World Alpine Championships, Daron Rahlves has a legitimate shot at a medal in this, his first full year on the circuit, according to his coach, Bill Egan.

"He's been very, very strong in every super-G event," Egan said during a tour stop in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. "He's an aggressive little dude. He's very quick and very athletic. He just needs experience."

With long-turn specialists A.J. Kitt out with a knee injury and Tommy Moe yet to hit full speed after last year's knee surgery, Rahlves' sudden burst of success is great news for the hopeful men's Alpine squad.

"I'm fired up to do well," said the 22-year-old former world Jet Ski champion and son of a world champion water-skier. "I have good momentum from last year," when he was moved up to the A team - and onto the World Cup circuit full-time - midway through the season.

A multitalented athlete, Rahlves has raced World Cup downhill and is the defending U.S. giant slalom title holder. But Chachi, as he is nicknamed, has found a home on the super-G course.

"Coaches want me to stay fresh for my specialty," said the avid 49ers fan. "They don't want to spread me too thin."

His parents, Sally and Dennis, are traveling to Spain to watch him ski in his first World Championships.

"He skis on the edge," Sally Rahlves said. "You can't take it easy; everybody else is going all out."

Words to ski by. It took Kyle Rasmussen a decade to hit World Cup pay dirt, but he thinks that some things are worth waiting for - namely his first two downhill wins last year, to go along with a third and a fourth in super-G.

"Experience really pays off on the men's downhill circuit. Now I know what it takes to get there," the two-time Olympian said from Germany. "It's all part of paying your dues.

"It's being able to get over the nervousness of, 'Maybe this will be the day.' My best runs are usually on race day, and I know how to step it up. The younger guys may have a good training run but not fare so well on race day."

What's it going to take to medal this week in Spain?

"It's not going to take anything extra. I just need to be patient," said the 27-year-old father of two, ages 5 and 2. "Everything has to come together. In downhill, there are too many variables - ski conditions, equipment, who knows what can happen. There are probably 30 guys that on any given day can win. If you look at slalom, or even GS, it's a given that one of four guys will win."

Though Rasmussen is ranked 17th in downhill and his best finish this year is sixth, Egan said he can take inspiration from 32-year-old Luc Alphand, who last week became the first Frenchman in 20 years to win a downhill.

"The best downhillers have 10, 12, 14 years of experience," Egan said. "There are guys who haven't been on the podium in nine years. It's just the right day, that's all there is to it. Kyle's so consistent; he has it all together. He just has to keep plugging away, and it will pop.

"Kyle and Daron are our top contenders for a medal, definitely; there is no one else."

When Rasmussen does retire - most likely after the '98 Winter Games - you'll probably find him in a bass boat fishing jigs and top-water lures or barbecuing in his backyard. "It's just fun after you have been eating in restaurants all winter to get home and enjoy that great California weather," he said. In only his second year on the freestyle team, Jonny Moseley has made an astounding ascent to the zenith of his sport.

A former Alpine racer who now skis all the freestyle disciplines - moguls, aerials and acroski (formerly ballet), his technique is defined by versatility, fluidity and extreme consistency.

In his rookie year on the World Cup he took a bronze in combined at the World Championships and won the overall freestyle title, which he is retaining so far this season. And he's nowhere near his peak.

"This year I'm going to keep with the same program and just sharpen it. It's a judged routine, so you go with what's working," the 20-year-old UC Davis frosh said during a World Cup layover in Oberjoch, Germany. "Then I'll take it to another level this summer and get so far out in front of everybody that they can't touch me. You have to push yourself, because someone will come along and revolutionize things for a year - until you figure out what they're doing."

The heir to world freestyle champ Trace Worthington's legacy has his eye on an overall moguls title. "I relish that most, instead of being half-ass at a lot of events and win the overall," he explained.

Jonny Mo, as he is called, said he must continue to win World Cup events right up to the Olympics if he expects to strike gold at Nagano.

"It has to do with my confidence going in, and the way you're looked at in your sport," said the sailing aficionado. "There is a lot of aura coming in as a champ; you're expected to win.

"I'd like to win in '98, retire a year after the Olympics and go back to school full-time. Short and sweet."

Moseley, whose brother, Rick, competed as a World Cup combined skier for one year, is certainly a fellow who is up for a challenge.

In 1994, during summer training in New Zealand, he promised his mother he would give up bungee jumping, then promptly went for a ride in a stunt plane with a 20-year-old pilot.

"I'd like to strap that guy on my back and run him down a mogul course and see how he likes it," he quipped.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

(1--color) Truckee's Daron Rahlves says he's "fired up to do well" in the super-G of the World Alpine Championships. Sports File / Tim Hancock (2--color) Annemarie Uliasz says she feels vindicated now that snowboarding is an Olympic sport. Sports File / Tim Hancock (3) Two-time Olympian Kyle Rasmussen, a father of two, thinks his experience will help him beat the rookies on the downhill circuit. Sports File / Tim Hancock (4) DEL GIUDICE (5) RAHLVES (6) RASMUSSEN (7) MOSELEY