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Show "KT WT p r r rr p r r f f 'M p A-18 77e Parfr Record Wednesday, January 28, 1998 It's Tine to Adjust Tor Winter. The onset of winter means lots of changes, especially for ijour body. Skiingand snowboarding, not to mention snow shoveling can put extra strain on your neck and back. Preventive chiropractic care is the best way to avoid injurt) and help ijou maintain a healthy body. Make the istment to winter with chiropractic care! Everyone can benefit from chiropractic care. Call today to schedule an appointment with Dr. Phillips. ft rhillips Chiropractic III if' -SeWng the Family with Chiropractic. Care r.ii k Avenue, Suite 12 in the Old Towne Business Center 60-6-T06 Picabo and Tomba provide intrigue; Seizinger and Maier have the power Four feet of snow await Olympic skiers next month for Nagano's Winter Games Two Choices, One Price Sofa $ 1 869 Loveseat $ 1599 Chair & 12 $1549 Chair only $1329 1 comfort- 1 FURNISHINGS 509 Main St. 647-7757 2756 W. Rasmussen Rd 647-5880 by Bob Baum AP SPORTS WRITER Picabo and Tomba: No more intriguing skiers have graced an Olympic Games. Picabo Street, with her effervescent effer-vescent enthusiasm, unshakable confidence and nasty scar on a knee that's barely healed, shoots for a triumphant comeback in the spotlight she fills with charismatic charismat-ic ease. Alberto Tomba, flamboyant Italian playboy and among the greatest technical skiers of all time, seeks to punctuate his extraordinary Olympic legacy with a last hurrah in the Japanese-Alps. Japanese-Alps. Their quests are perfect storybook story-book fodder for Alpine skiing, one of the glamour events of the Nagano Games. But while Street and Tomba will be the sentimental favorites in Japan, Germany's Katja Seizinger and Austria's Hermann Maier are more realistic picks, based on their dominant World Cup seasons. For anxious weeks, there was concern whether there even would be snow in Hakuba and Shiga Kogen. the mountain villages vil-lages where the Alpine drama unfolds beginning Feb. 8. Forty-two days before the games were to begin, tourists, ski resort owners and Olympic organizing orga-nizing officials gathered at a Hakuba temple to pray for snow. "In troubled times we pray to the gods," Hakuba Mayor Nobuyuki Fukushima told a local newspaper. newspa-per. The gods answered with a series of storms have piled more than a meter (4 feet) of snow at Hakuba. Such is the quirky weather of Japan's mountains, where rapidly changing conditions could disrupt dis-rupt the Olympic schedule and the skiers' psyches. "Weather can turn from sunny to rainy or snowy, from cold to warm, during the race," Isolde Kostner of Italy said.- - ;1 Months before the Olympics began, Alpine skiing was the subject sub-ject of "controversy when the International Ski Federation complained that the men's down- '": i 1 1 vfin ftfil ET53 iyxfYiPi iTfKJItTI far? 1 1 m Ms hill course was too short, not up to the level of difficulty for an Olympics. Negotiations eventually resulted in the course being lengthened by 85 meters (279 feet), with Japanese authorities reluctantly allowing it to encroach into a national park. The downhill course will be the scene of the Olympics' first event, where Maier will be favored despite sore shins that bothered him in late January. Also a top contender in the super-giant slalom, giant slalom and combined events, Maier won five races in a row during this, his first full season as a member of the Austrian World Cup team, before resting sore shins on the advice of his doctor in late January. Janu-ary. Maier, 25, already has as many points as last year's World Cup champion Luc Alphand of France earned in the entire season. sea-son. He is nicknamed "The Alien" for his otherworldly abilities. abili-ties. "I'm the best-placed skier from this planet," Austrian teammate team-mate Andreas Schifferer joked after finishing second to Maier in the super-giant slalom in Schlad-ming, Schlad-ming, Austria. Behind Maier are a seemingly endless string of Austrians who could contend for medals if they haven't been burned out by the extreme competitiveness of just making their country's Olympic team. Among them are Schifferer, Hans Knauss, Stephan Eberhar-ter Eberhar-ter and Werner Franz in the speed races (downhill and super-G) super-G) along with Thomas Sykora and Thomas Stangassinger, the 1994 slalom gold medalist, in the technical races (slalom and giant slalom). Among non-Austrians, those to watch include Italy's Kristian Ghedina and Norway's Lasse Kjus. Unlike 'the-"weaty,AiriHc'4,n "men's'team, Street still maintains confidence that she earn bring the United States a gold in the women's downhill, the event that was her springboard to worldwide fame when she took the silver medal four years ago in Lilleham-mer. Lilleham-mer. She finished fourth in a World Cup downhill in Italy two weeks before the games. It was a sign that she may again be the best woman downhill racer in the world. She became the first American skier, man or woman, to win the World Cup downhill champi- super giant slalom in 1992 and in the slalom in 1994. Pernilla Wiberg, the defending world champion in the downhill, is coming com-ing back from injury. Warwara Zelenskaja of Russia won twice on the Hakuba course last year. Then there is Street, who managed man-aged a lOth-place finish in her first World Cup race after her injury. She delayed her comeback to continue her training so she could be at her best by the Olympics. She also knows the course. Last year, with her leg in a cast, she climbed on the Weather can turn from sunny to rainy or snowy, from COld tO Warm, during the back of an assistant coach race. " Italian Isolde Kostner on the Nagano mountains onship, in 1995 and 1996. But the serious knee injury she suffered in a crash while training run in Vail, Colorado, 13 months ago has stripped her of her favorite's role. Instead, Seizinger will be favored to win the downhill gold for the second Olympics in a row. The 27-year-old millionaire's daughter has been a top World Cup contender since 1992. Known for a somewhat aloof personality, Seizinger has emerged both on the slopes and in her persona this year, winning six consecutive races (three downhills and three super Gs) and developing an outgoing, out-going, candid style in post-race interviews. Her six consecutive victories tied a World Cup record set by the great Jean-Claude Killy of France. Seizinger's top competition includes Renate Goetschl of Austria Aus-tria and Deborah Compagnoni of Italy, the gold medalist in the and surveyed the course up close. Since then, she has skied it in her mind thousands thou-sands of times. "All I could imagine was running it perfectly and get ting a medal around my neck," she said. "I kept seeing it over and over again." In skiing, no one has had a more public private life than the irrepressible Tomba, whose fast-lane fast-lane lifestyle and outspokenness have blended with his success on the slopes to make him one of Europe's most recognizable athlete ath-lete over the past decade After last season, Tomba flirted flirt-ed with retirement. But, with three gold and two silver Olympic medals already in his collection, he couldn't resist the lure of one more Games. At 31, plagued by a sore back, Tomba has had a sub-par World Cup season. But he won his first World Cup slalom in more than a year in January, his 49th overall career victory. "I'm here!" he proclaimed. Just in time for his fourth Olympic Games. Surfing the World Wide Web for news? Check out The Park Record onv the Web"at:' www.newscoice.com ON JUNE 20, UTAH POWER'S 3RD ANNUAL BOUND FOR BELIZE CONTEST WILL SEND FOUR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND ONE TEACHER TO THE JUNGLES OF CENTRAL AMERICA FOR A WEEK-LONG TROPICAL FORESTRY ECOLOGY COURSE. 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