U.S. hope oust of race

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 92

U.S. hope oust of race

TIM DUNBAR

ln Calgary

“Unfailingly cheerful and outgoing” was the description of Pam Fletcher’s personality by a “USA Today” writer in a preview of the Olympic women’s downhill yesterday. Only a matter of hours after that story was published the American skier’s cheerfulness was tested in a way no-one could have predicted. While making her second warm-up run at Nakiska, less than two hours before race start time, Fletcher collided with an alpine volunteer and broke her fibula. Her right leg was put in a temporary cast and she stayed on the hill to cheer on her team-mates in the race, later postponed a day because of high winds. Propped up on crutches, Feltcher amazingly managed a big smile for the television cameras and a pressing mass of journalists who gathered around here in the finish area. / "You’ve got to smile,”

she said, but before the impromptu press conference was over there were unmistakable tears in her eyes. Fletcher was to be the first racer in the start gate and she was the United States team’s big hope for a medal. According to the American downhiller, she was crossing a cat track when an orange-jacketed volunteer approached from the wrong direction and they were unable to avoild a collision. “I was going fast and so was he.” The impact was a shattering one. “He was a lot larger (about 6ft 2 in) than I am and a lot wider,” Fletcher said. Mount Allan in the

heart of Kananaskia’s Country was not really Fletcher’s favourite slope anyway. Racing there just over a year ago she was concussed in a fall and was “out for two hours.” “I’m real familiar with the people in the first-aid tent,” she managed to joke. She had been looking forward to competing in the Olympic downhill, especially wearing bib No. 1. "I can’t believe it,” said Fletcher, the winner of a World Cup downhill in 1986. “The Olympics are probably the most important race of anybody’s life.” She had wanted to run No. 1 and had been imbued with the “No. 1 feeling.” Previously the only thing Fletcher has broken was her thumb. ‘Tve never had a cast on my leg before, I never wanted a cast.”

Fletcher, now aged 25, has been ski-ing since the tender age of two, not surprising when her fathef, Alan, built and still

runs the Nashoba Valley ski area outside Boston. When she found she was out of the race she cried, but the senior member of the United States women’s downhill squad said the full impact of the injury had not yet hit her. Soon after the accident she rang her mother, Nancy. “Mum is so happy I’m alive.” The broken leg continues a string of bad injuries for the United States ski team, seven in the space of a year. Bob Condron, the United States press attache, detailed some of the freak accidents. “Downhiller Doug Lewis broke his collarbone when he skied over a hill and hit a Soviet technician’s video equipment and Debbie Armstrong dislocated a fi- ’ bula While wrestling with a team-mate.” Shaking his head, Mr Condrom said: “It’s crazy.” Olympics: Page <3l Inside sport: Page 15