Swiss skier’s boots walk

Press, 27 July 1989, Page 44

Swiss skier’s boots walk

There was no preferential treatment by New Zealand Customs for the members of the champion Swiss men’s ski team when they arrived yesterday to train and race at Mount Hutt. In fact, the Swiss skiers were the last people by a long way through the controls after their international flight arrived at Christchurch Airport from Brisbane. And it was all hands to shift a mountainous load of ski equipment into the arrival lounge, even the elite members of an elite team. The stocky Paul Accola, the combined bronze medal winner at the Calgary Winter Olympics, appeared staggering under two weighty ski bags. But well behind the rest of the Swiss team was their most famous skier, Pirmin Zurbriggen, winner of the downhill gold at Calgary, three world championship golds and three over-all World Cups. A slightly distraught Zurbriggen had spent an extra 15 or 20min searching in vain for his precious ski boots — three pairs of them. However, the Olympic champion will not have to see the Mount Hutt ski hire department when the Swiss team arrives up on the ski-field today. He will ski the first day , ona similar (borrowed) pair to his own. But he is anxious that his own boots turn up after that. The Swiss are among several overseas teams taking part in the F.I.S. (Federation Internationale de Ski) races at Mount Hutt on August 3, 4 and 5 as part of a today training camp here for the first World Cup ski events in Australia at Thredbo, New South Wales, on August 11 and 12. The rest of the Yugoslavs also arrived yesterday, as did the gear of ' the West German team — but not the skiers. For Zurbriggen, the ski races at Mount Hutt will be the first in what he plans to make his last season. “I have won already so much and now I have another interest,” he said.