SKI TEAM LIMPS INTO CHAMPIONSHIPS.Byline: Vania Grandi Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Picabo Street Picabo Street (born April 3, 1971, in Triumph, Idaho) is an American skier, now retired and living in Park City, Utah. She was raised on a small farm in Triumph, several miles southeast of Sun Valley, Idaho, where she learned to ski and race. is out for the season. Tommy Moe Tommy Moe (born February 17, 1970 in Missoula, Montana) is an American skier, now retired and living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he serves as an ambassador of skiing for the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. is home nursing a cut hand. Other Americans have barely made a ripple on the World Cup circuit. The U.S. ski team heads into the World Alpine Championships without its two biggest stars and without much hope of even winning a single medal. With the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, just a year away, American ski prospects are looking bleak. Hopes for a great season for American skiers collapsed in early December when Street, the defending world downhill champion and the sport's most marketable female competitor, tore ligaments in her knee. Street, the 1994 Olympic silver medalist, won't be back on the World Cup tour until next season. ``That's the problem with a team built on one athlete,'' said the women's head coach, Herwig Demschar. Since Street was sidelined, other injuries have decimated the team, leaving few healthy skiers to challenge for a medal at the two-week world championships opening Sunday. Moe, the 1994 Olympic downhill champion, severed a tendon in his hand last weekend and will miss the Worlds. Moe called his injury a ``fluke thing'' that happened in a Kitzbuehel, Austria, pub, where he and several other World Cup racers were tending bar. A week before Moe's injury, Kyle Rasmussen tore knee ligaments in a downhill in Wengen, Switzerland. ``We are hurting,'' men's head coach Tomas Karlsson said. AJ Kitt, bronze medalist in the downhill at the 1993 worlds in Morioka, Japan, declared himself ``mentally burned out,'' according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Karlsson, and skipped the Kitzbuehel races last week to go home and recharge for Sestriere. His best showing this season has been an eighth-place finish. Perhaps the best U.S. chance at a medal is slalom specialist Matt Grosjean, who has been consistently among the top 15 racers in slalom this season and posted a career best fourth-place finish in Kranjska Gora Kranjska Gora (population 1,605) is a town and a municipality in north-west Slovenia, close to the Austrian and Italian borders. Kranjska Gora is mostly famous as a winter sports town, being situated in the Julian Alps. , Slovenia, on Jan. 6 ``I feel that I am skiing better than I have going into any race,'' Grosjean said. ``I know it will take my absolute best day to get a medal, but my goal is to have that day.'' On the women's side, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist Hilary Lindh Hilary Lindh (born May 10, 1969) is an American former alpine skier. Born at Juneau, Alaska, Lindh was just 14 when she was named to the U.S. Ski Team. By 16, she had become the first American to win a World Junior Championships downhill title. She represented the U.S. has had a mediocre season, although she showed signs of recent improvement with a ninth-place finish in Cortina cor`ti´na n. 1. (Biology) a cobwebby remnant of the partial veil which in some mature mushrooms hang from the edges of the cap. Noun 1. , Italy. Before that, she hadn't placed higher than 17th. Megan Gerety had a fifth-place finish early in the season at a downhill in Vail Vail (vāl), town (1990 pop. 3,569), Eagle co., W central Colo., on Gore Creek, in the Gore Range of the Rocky Mts.; founded as a ski resort 1962, inc. as a town 1966. but since then has finished mostly around the 20th spot. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Tommy Moe, the 1994 Olympic downhill champion, will miss the Worlds after severing a tendon in his hand while tending bar in Austria. Daily News File Photo |
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