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Show poor; copys 1 'S- 5 "r i 1 , "hursday, February 21, 1980 Page 1 ; v sports y v ,t , fit "V - 1 I J- 1 I I. J? J? 4 f 1 lie abvjS oi uiympic '. Ki. iuii ji ii.u tuini-l'eece ell. it's i iv L that I'm here hi town e.victly. I. not unlike vdii. am not a fool. Who :,iH's in wait two, three, Miiiu -Umcs four hours lor the ! to iliosey by? But itiiiti or lour hours in tioot i-f the tube (.vich night, au inn;; the Gifi'er and Jim f'urt and the rest of the lays i'Ui ii ijuietiy in the night .'ivv. one a sen.se of place; it ;.'"s bring up a few hard r;u Stious. t-iku the coverage of the w!yoijies for example. '.Vbut. we might ask is ABC u; to? I'm reminded of that .iwful coverage of the men's downhill, those shots of I'l kr l.uescher scampering trough the roses, sniffing .! round like some drug-i drug-i i azeri freak; of Ken Read, !!:( Canadian downhiller i'i:tg interviewed "upelose and personal," and, of -ur.e, the non coverage of i 'ele Patterson. if you can't remember -iike it was only covered 1 riefiy, Patterson finished tilth in th.it downhill that is m downhill i it's really a wax race at the bottom and a leap hito the votd at the top). "And next we'll have the gre.it run of Pete Patterson,'' Patter-son,'' says Frank Gilford on that lateful evening. It's not a it. mind will, that the boys in the studio didn't have time to decide how they were going to cover the "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." There was time to orchestrate orches-trate that show. But instead of seeing Patterson come up with the American Olympic best finish since the '5()s k hen Buddy Werner was the American hotshot, ABC elected to show us peopfe who finished behind Patterson. Patter-son. Line Plank of Italy for example Lord knows, Plank is a fine ski racer. But you can bet the Italians did more than enough to justify the run of that former Olympic medalist What we needed to see was how Pete Patterson, who spent six weeks on his back two years ago after a racing injury, was able to miraculously come back to finish so high for the Americans. "Well, that's ABC for you," said one U.S. Ski Team coach who prefers not to be identified. "They always i;eem to blow it." Which perhaps is the nature of the beast. With four Americans skiing downhill you'd think the television M3 V C producers would see a way to cover the American side with a bit more -well -intensity ' But instead what we got was a glitch of Patterson being interviewed during the late night wrap up and Bob Beattie (bless his Austrian beer drinking soul) explaining explain-ing to us ( upelose and personal) how Patterson is able to hold that egg position on the flats The reason the (Jiff er threw it back to McKay was to cover that sublime game between the American Hockey Hock-ey team and the Czechs which is hard to fault. What one can moan about is the decision to cover so-so runs by Europeans and neglect to cover the Americans even if they didn't finish Television is a vicious form of committee journalism that often does its very best at coming up with the lowest common denominator. This is not to say, mind you. that the preference is no coverage cover-age at all; the preference of thi. writer is more insight into the Americans. It would have been nice, for example, to see the Rocket from Park City (Roxanne Toly) forerun the Women's downhill course. Sure, 1 know Roxanne isn't a contender con-tender for the gold medal this year, but she is an American and she is a story of some substance and... 1 could go on. So I will: What of this hype about the gold medal? The way Keith Jackson puts it, you'd think a silver medal v.as a form ot self-abuse; that oik- should snivel into a corner after having failed so miserably. And Eric Ueiden, that 21-year-old speed skating supeistar, must want to run and hide every time he sees one of those ABC hitmen lugging a microphone come round the corner. "Well Erie " JatkM.n says in his best broadcast voice. "Two down and three to go." I was watching that interview inter-view take place at a local bar. One of the patrons had to be evicted because of that little remark. He picked up his mug of beer and threw it up against the wall where Jackson was getting "up-close "up-close and personal" and then he started climbing over the bar screaming something about "ripping that little geek's throat right out of his head." Last I heard was the guy in the bar. Smeryl heinish for lack of a better name, was sent down to American Fork, a new addition to the catatonic ward. Still, I admit ABC is there. It might be that Tai and Randy are out of the picture-now picture-now ; and it might also be true that the Russians are merely a shadow of what pairs ice skating should be as Dick Button continually implied; im-plied; but, still, it's nice to see those gifted athletes do their life dance even if someone is always breaking in to lei you know how much finer Rndy and Tai's pre senialioii woulii h,w- ken. So this is' the way it's turn. "' Malrnquib! is in second place after the jumping phase of nordic combined. Next he'll run a 15 kilometer race and he says he hopes to finish m the top ten overall. Jackr-nn told him he's got a chance tor the gold (it he didn't have that chance the ratings might di op and, let's hue it the ratings and not the gold medal are really what ABC is up to). So Malmquist smiled, said thanks, and waited lor the interview to end. After it's all said and done Bill Koch has a handle o,i what is really happemag The media coverage has been so intense that world class racers like Koch had to sit down wit ha tew reported and lecture them on the value of sports per se and not the value of gold medals Did you see that? Koch explained patiently, without raising hi hackles or walking off the scene, that the spoit is the thing, that a silver medal is no disgrace, that no medal is not a disgrace. It was like a Sunday school lecture. Now if we could get ABC to do something like show us more of the Americans in the opening and closing ceremonies cere-monies it would be nice. Just a down-home shot of the Rocket smiling her "I've got it covered" smile. That, I think, would be enough. (las The Largest Selection Of estern Mats Famous Stetson Felts . OOOO and Straws from mmi&B Henschel-Skilly Genuine OCTOU Leather Hats from mf Paramount Denim Western J195 Hats J Wolfe's at Park City Holiday Village 1780 Park Avenue Open 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. Mother Karen's Cup Snider Adds Another Troph i. Kich.oil I '.a i tin tit Itci'ie llesajs it's a fairy tale, like in a dream, softly sailing off Us.it second jump, neatly carving then skating ahead to another ictory. Yes, Greg Snider has won another Coors Colorado Pro Tour lure. This time it was the Mother Karen's Cup last veekend on Park City's S.d'.cr Queen run just nipping ( i cg Bart let!, w ho was 'close, very close, but no i gar. You come out here and 'tiiere are l fid guys who are ready to take you on and stomp on you in a second," Snider said, leaning on his skis after that final, hell-bent r i : i. whiv h transferred a l dim chi ck to Snider's account. "And let me tell you," Snider added. "They can slump on you if you give 'em a chance." (hog Bartlett certainly had some heavy stomping on his mind. He said he had Snider just w here he wanted him: in the ugly rut-wrecked red course with only .197 of a second lead. "iMy man just blew it," said Bart let t's coach, Craig Gorder, a former U.S. Ski Team and World 1'ro skiing ra er. " The idea was for him to make his move at the . !w.: torn " "i just jammed too hard at s.O'e--"i those .gates at the !)o, lom (in the blue course)," Bartlett explained. "I could have ovei taken him but it didn't work that way." And there was Snider tak ing on the I)Q King, Greg Bartlett, who had simply waltzed into the finals of the Mother Karen's Cup as he watched his opponents blowout blow-out of the course one at a time. But Snider wasn't about to let it happen again. Still, it was very close indeed. "I hit one of those jam ruts at the bottom and it was pretty close," Snider said, explaining explain-ing the fall that never happened was a dash of luck, a bit of persistence and, of course, the loose ends of that fairy tale coming together. "I was never named to the national team," he explained. ex-plained. "I went to the University of Wyoming and raced and I was named an Ail-American, but after that 1 dropped out of ski racing for a year, worked in a ski shop and skied some powder." pow-der." It was right after that that Snider started coaching junior racers. The kids brought him around and he decided he'd try ski racing again. No big hopes. Just give it a try. "And last year I got married and I think that's helped me get my head screwed on a little straight-er," straight-er," he continued as a wolfpack of reporters jammed him in the winner's circle, sticking cameras, microphones and questions into his face. Does he make enough money skiing the "B" tour to live on? "It's more than enough for me if I keep skiing this well," Snider said. "As long as I've got a new pair of jeans and I'm warm and I can keep my car running I'm fine." Snider picked up his winnings win-nings check and, according to Jean-Peter Otsbye, who is in second place on the Coors Tour, he can probably count on another $1,000 from his sponsors. "Mathematically, there are maybe three guys who can catch Snider now," one pro said at the cocktail party after the race. "But Otsbye is the only one who can do it. And the way Snider is skiing right now it doesn't look like he's going to slow down for anyone." There are four races left on the 11 -race schedule, according accord-ing to race organizer Sandy Nichols. The next race will be at Jackson Hole's Snow King ski resort on March 1 . "I raced the first race on the World Pro Skiing circuit, this year," Snider said. "I just don't think it's that much tougher. The problem for me is you're up there and you're standing beside guys who have skied on the World Cup and skied in the Olympics. Olym-pics. ..for me, it's all in your head." Which is close to what Bartlett says. Bartlett, who is originally from Stowe, Vt., and who now skis on the Mammouth Mountain team with Snider, says when it comes down to the last eight people, it's the same ball park. "I think we take care of our bottom guys belter," Sa Nichols explains, "it qualify on WPS ami eliminated the firs' r you get $i:i:5. Mere you almost twice that nua.-r. guys you have to take ea on these circuits are people who aren't as his the standings. Those arc people you luu e to concerned about, it vs. not on the top ten ot so : WPS you're not making money." Presently, Snider has points followed by O' with 120. Otsbye is folio by Bruce Gamble, :) p and Jim Hudson wit! points. Bartlett collected J.v, his second place foe ! ! Third and fourth pia.-. to Wayne Wright of i : ,-boro, ,-boro, Vt., and Dave u-of u-of Purgatory, Colo Snider admitted he Uh.; difficulty of the.Sib.e: ;, course, which dropped ridge and then look a si dog-leg to the left ntn-r second bump onto a flat : at the finish. "It was a good course rut bunnies," one coach "I like tough courst Snider said, pocket ire-check ire-check at the awards i monies. Otsbye, who lost to Sec!, the second round after ing a 1.7 second dq the run, said, "You jnst . take anything for gsante this tour. It was mistake for me to t : : the first run." 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