Reader TTS

KVITFJELL, Norway — Not only is Kjetil Aamodt No. 1 in the telephone book, he captured that place in the heart of this country’s Alpine skiing fans Sunday by becoming the first Norwegian to

win a World Cup race on home snow. The fact that his super-G victory moved him into first place in that discipline’s standings was just icing on the slopes of Kvitfjell, the site for the

men’s downhill and Super G in next February’s Winter Olympics. After more than 10,000 flag-waving, cowbell-ringing spectators came to Kvitfjell for a downhill race Saturday, about half as

many were here Sunday. Those might not sound like huge crowds, but in Norway, where Alpine skiing has been considered a poor relation to the vastly more popular Nordic events, they were

significant. The interest has been fueled by success in the last two years of the Norwegian men’s Alpine team, “The Attacking Vikings,” who are led not only alphabetically by the baby-faced,

21-year-old Aamodt, a gold medalist in last year’s Winter Olympic Super G and this year’s World Championship slalom and giant slalom. With his victory Sunday, the sport’s newest star

tightened his grip on second place behind Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli in the overall World Cup standings. Aamodt won by .20 over runner-up Daniel Mahrer of Switzerland. American Tommy Moe

finished seventh, his best Super G finish. The Norwegian men won two Alpine gold medals in the 1992 Winter Olympics, which is two more than they had won since 1952. Their combined men’s and

women’s teams won three more gold medals, seven total, in the recent World Championships, even though bad weather forced the cancellation of their best event, the men’s super-G. “I’ve always

thought that there has been no country with so much skiing talent as we have in Norway,” said Ola K. Bakke, director of the country’s Alpine program. “We often say that Norwegian children

are born with skis on.” The problem that Bakke faced when he took over the program seven years ago is that those skis usually were designed for touring across the terrain instead of racing

down it. Alpine skiing still is not on the verge of overtaking cross-country skiing here. While officials were ecstatic about the crowd of more than 10,000 here Saturday, 7,300 people showed

up that day to ski in a 55-kilometer cross-country race between Lillehammer and Rena. But Alpine has made strides. More than 360,000 Alpine skis were sold in Norway last year, almost four

times the number of five years before. Bakke arrived here Saturday, one day after watching a junior championship at Voss, Knute Rockne’s hometown, that involved 1,500 competitors. Bakke said

no more than 300 would have competed 10 years ago. Much of the credit belongs to Bakke, 68, who grasped the reins of the program with such a firm grip when he took over seven years ago that

he became known as “Idi Alpin.” With a significant budget increase, one of his first moves was to hire coaches from Austria and Yugoslavia. Then, he instituted a year-around conditioning

program that requires skiers to choose from among a wide range of disciplines, including mountain climbing, ski jumping, karate, wrestling, canoeing and even bungee jumping and ballet. He

wants to add parachuting this year. “If you don’t have strength and courage, you can’t be a good Alpine skier,” he said. The victory Sunday by Kjetil Aamodt (SHEH-teel OH-moot) is the most

recent example of the program’s success.