ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP 1997/98
Yong Pyong (KOR) Men's 8th Giant Slalom. 28.Feb.1998
Alpine Ski World Cup discovers new frontier in South Korea

One week after the closing ceremony of the 18th Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, the Alpine Ski World Cup will resume with technical events for both women and men. The women will race in a night Slalom scheduled on Saturday in Austria's Saalbach while the men will compete for the first time in South Korea which became the 20th country to host a World Cup race since the creation of the competition by French Journalist Serge Lang in 1966. A Giant Slalom and a Slalom will be organized on newly built courses in the ski are of Yong Pyong, situated in the Province of Kangwon at the North East of the Korean Peninsula. The place is not far away from the East Sea, at three hours drive from Seoul. A new highway, the Seoul-Kangnung Expressway, will soon shorten the time between the capital and the vacation resort, one of the largest of its kind in the country. Opened in 1975 for the purpose of creating "Harmony between People and Nature", Yong Pyong resort includes a multi-purpose recreation center and excellent leisure facilities set within a natural background. The skiing facilities which also proposes night skiing, can accommodate up to 12,000 people and offer over twenty runs.
Three of them have been officially recognized by the International Ski Federation in past years.
16 chair-lifts and a gondola carry the skiers all around the mountains up to 1500 meters. There is also a run reserved for snowboarders and cross country trails. Summer activities are intense too with more than 60 leisure facilities around Yon Pyong resort including international caliber golf courses, tennis courts, indoor and outdoor swimming pool. Tourists from all Asian and Pacific countries enjoy to travel here to rest and have fun. Yong Pyong started in the early 90's to organize international ski races counting for the International Far East Cup. The success of the competitions also attended by major European teams and the will of the Chairman of the Asian Ski Federation, Dr.Sung-Won Lee, to establish Yong Pyong as a new destination within the World Cup calendar convinced the International Ski Federation and the World Cup Committee to come here. With the help of the 1972 Downhill Olympic Champion Bernhard Russi, the designer of most of the recent Olympic courses, Yong Pyong developed a new part of the mountain west of the area known as "Rainbow Summit". Another run, the longest with its 6 km, will soon start from "Bal Wang Mountain" and present a spectacular view on the East Sea.
In preparation for the World Cup races and the 1999 Asian Winter Games planned in February 99, other improvements have been made such as the construction of a indoor ice rink. A new condominium complex of 450 rooms able to accommodate up to 2,250 guests is to be finished before next Winter. With this new complex Yong Pyong accommodation facilities which also includes a 191 rooms hotel named Dragon Valley will reach over fifteen hundred rooms with a capacity of more than eight thousand guests. These developments are being pushed forward by the mother company of Yong Pyong Resort, the powerful Saangyong group known for its cement factories and oil business. The group, which takes particularly care of environmental protection, has also create a wildlife preserve containing more than 10,000 trees, a flora garden and other areas where visitors may enjoy the beauty of untouched wilderness. Around Yong Pyong resort, several destinations attract tourists - such as beautiful temples at SabWon Sa and Woljung Sa or Oh Dae San Mountain National Park with its fir trees.
Giant Slalom in Korea Von Grunigen back at the top

Switzerland's Michael von Grunigen enjoyed a sweet revenge in the next-to-last Giant Slalom of the season held by difficult weather conditions in Korea's most prestigious ski resort of Yong Pyong. The defending GS World Champion, 3rd at the Olympics a week ago, had the satisfaction to beat the two best Austrian specialists in that specialty, Christian Mayer and the new Olympic Champion Hermann Maier.
All three together, these athletes have won all nine major Giant Slalom races organized this winter in North America, Europe and in the Far East. Another Swiss, Paul Accola, was 4th while Italy's hopeful Arnold Rieder obtained a career best 6th place in front of some established specialists such as Stefan Eberharter, a silver medal winner in Shiga Kogen last week. Canada's Thomas Grandi was the best North American in 16th place.
US skier Daron Rahvles only clocked the 37th best time in the first run and he didn't qualify for the second leg. He will not compete at the Finals in Crans-Montana. Bode Miller didn't compete in Korea.
Italy's Alberto Tomba, still injured at his back after his crash in the GS in Nagano, didn't come to Korea.
Von Grunigen beat Mayer by 40/100 of a second to celebrate his third season's success, his 14th in his career, while Maier reached another top-3 result with a delay of 66/100. Yet the double Olympic Champion, who suffers from his back, was quite happy by his result. He is now almost sure to become the second skier from the Austrian ski team to clinch the Overall World Cup title 28 years after the great Karl Schranz. With seven more races on the program including the finals in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Hermann is out of reach of his closest rival, his teammate Andreas Schifferer. The best downhiller of the season got a season's best 7th place, but with a delay of 591 points in the Overall Standings, he can't hope to catch Maier since he doesn't compete in Slalom. In the Giant Slalom World Cup, Maier will need to wait the last event in Crans-Montana to be sure to conquer also the crystal Globe in that discipline. His advance on Von Grunigen has been reduced to 40 points after Korea's first ever competition.
The Swiss can still clinch the title with another great performance at the Finals in case of a failure of "The Herminator".
Despite the heavy snowstorm which affected both runs, von Grunigen was able to demonstrate his flawless technique in the longer second run in which he was by far the fastest of the favorites after clocking the second best time in the morning behind Christian Mayer. "It's quite exciting to win this difficult race in front of the best Austrian" he said after the race. "I'm still motivated and I have the desire to prove something until the end of the season - that my technique is still good enough to win races". "I race with more feelings and control than the Austrian who like to choose the shortest possible line from one gate to the other.
My style requires good terrain, strong concentration and great confidence. It's not easy to put all these elements together on a given day. My Olympic result boosted my moral and I felt ready to charge today despite the bad weather. The course was in great shape. I'm quite proud to have become the first skier ever to win a World Cup race here in Korea. I hope to come back once". Von Grunigen who has won all "Classical" Giant Slalom races and the Gold Medal at the World Championships in 1997 has been a winner in most of the countries visited by the technical skiers in past year - Austria, France, Italy, Japan, Slovenia, Switzerland, USA.
"I'm looking forward to the race in Crans-Montana, it will be a very exciting one " added the 27-year-old skier. "I will have the home advantage there". Michael is married and a proud father of a 4 year-old boy named Noel.
Hermann Maier hopes to be in better shape within two weeks. Before moving to Switzerland, the Overall World Cup leader has to travel to Lillehammer, in Norway, where two speed events are planned for the coming week-end. "I couldn't take any risks today" he admitted after the race. "My back pain prevented me to put much pressure on my skis and I'm pretty surprised to have done so well today. Third place is not so bad after all". It's the third time that the 25-year-old finishes third in GS this winter. With 10 wins and nine top-3 places, second World Cup season is really amazing considering his lack of experience. "I'm very very happy, I have reached much more than I could imagine" he said. "Everything went on fine, I have been very lucky too. It's a great feeling to win the Overall World Cup after doing so well at the Olympics. You have to be so strong from the first to the last race. I'm particularly proud of my three wins in Austria in January and my comeback in Super-G in Nagano. This was quite incredible". The Austrian still has not seen the video of his horrible crash in the Downhill in Hakuba. 2I want to wait until the end of the season, I still have to race in four more speed events " he explained. Christian Mayer also had a good reason to be happy after this tough race which gave him the opportunity to come back on the podium after three disappointing races in a row. Last week he finished at a far 9th place in the Giant Slalom race after reaching second place in the first run. In the previous events in Saalbach, Austria, and Adelboden, Switzerland, he has skied out after good intermediate times. "I'm always taking a maximum of risks and it's normal to face problems in some races" he said. "I was upset by my result in Shiga Kogen where I put too much pressure on myself and on my skis in the second run. Today I had a solid first run but there was too much wind on course when I started again in the afternoon. At least I have proved that I belong to the top-3 in that event this season. I have a last chance to win again in two weeks". In Nagano, Mayer also put great pressure on his trainers and his national ski federation when he heard that he was not qualified for the Olympic Slalom. "I was ready to quit the Austrian team at the end of this season and to race for another country" he said. "My lawyer had already checked the situation. Fortunately for me, the fourth Slalom specialist, Siegfried Voglreiter injured himself and everything was fine again".
In Sunday's Slalom, Christian will also aim for a top-3 place. His teammates Thomas Stangassinger and Thomas Sykora, who fight for the Slalom World Cup title, are the favorites as well as the new Olympic Champion Hans Petter Buraas, excellent 15th on Saturday, his result ever in that event. The red haired skier was also the best Norwegian in that race in front of Kjetil Aamodt , Harald Christian Strand-Nilsen and Lasse Kjus, by far the best GS specialists in the past years in his team.
Men's 8th Giant Slalom, 28.02.1998
Rank Name Nat. Total
 1 VON GRUENIGEN Michael  SUI   2:22.35
 2 MAYER Christian  AUT   2:22.75
 3 MAIER Hermann  AUT   2:23.01
 4 ACCOLA Paul  SUI   2:23.33
 5 SALZGEBER Rainer  AUT   2:23.62
 6 RIEDER Arnold  ITA   2:23.64
 7 SCHIFFERER Andreas  AUT   2:23.70
 8 EBERHARTER Stephan  AUT   2:23.87
 9 LOCHER Steve  SUI   2:23.92
 10 BUECHEL Marco  LIE   2:24.02
 11 NYBERG Fredrik  SWE   2:24.21
 12 PICCARD Ian  FRA   2:24.22
 13 KOSIR Jure  SLO   2:24.32
 14 PLASCHY Didier  SUI   2:24.40
 15 BURAAS Hans-Petter  NOR   2:24.48
 16 GRANDI Thomas  CAN   2:24.59
 17 UOTILA Sami  FIN   2:24.62
 18 AAMODT Kjetil Andre  NOR   2:24.64
 19 KAELIN Urs  SUI   2:24.79
 20 STRAND NILSEN Harald Chr.  NOR   2:24.81
 21 CHENAL Joel  FRA   2:25.44
 21 KJUS Lasse  NOR   2:25.44
 23 SCHILCHEGGER Heinz  AUT   2:25.61
 24 BERGAMELLI Sergio  ITA   2:25.63
 25 ERTL Andreas  GER   2:25.79
 26 STROBL Josef  AUT   2:25.83
 27 KNAUSS Bernhard  SLO   2:25.84
 28 COVILI Frederic  FRA   2:26.33

Did not start 1st run:
SAIONI Christophe (FRA), GROSJEAN Matthew (USA)

Did not finish 1st run:
KNAUSS Hans (AUT), BORMOLINI Ivan (ITA), NANA Matteo (ITA), KOENIGSRAINER Gerhard (ITA), HOLZER Patrick (ITA), WAREMAN Hayo (NED)

Did not finish 2nd run:
MADER Guenther (AUT), BARNERSSOI Tobias (GER)

Disqualified 1st run:
PICCARD Jeff (FRA)

Did not qualify 2nd run:
REITER Mario (AUT), PALANDER Kalle (FIN), LLORACH Gaetan (FRA), MANUEL Patrice (FRA), EBERLE Markus (GER), URUMBAEV Kamil (UZB), BERGAMELLI Giancarlo (ITA), BELFROND Matteo (ITA), BERGAMELLI Thomas (ITA), KIMURA Kiminobu (JPN), HUR Seung Wook (KOR), BYON Jong Moon (KOR), VOGT Achim (LIE), LOEDLER Thomas (CRO), STIANSEN Tom (NOR), HANSSON Martin (SWE), RAHLVES Daron (USA), KOBLAR Jernej (SLO), KUNC Mitja (SLO), GRUBELNIK Drago (SLO)