From Deseret News archives:
Palander claims World Cup slalom
Rest of results are unofficial, however
Aside from that, officially, the rest of the results are unofficial at this point.
Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria was declared runner-up after the race, but a jury of officials reversed an earlier decision, which led to his disqualification.
This moved everyone else up a single position, giving Manfred Pranger of Austria second and Giorgio Rocca of Italy third. And, it moved America's Tom Rothrock up ninth to eighth, and Chip Knight up from 18th to 17th.
But wait. An official protest was filed by Austria that could, within the next week, validate or invalidate the ruling. If the decisions favors Austria, Schoenfelder would step back in at No. 2, which would move everyone else back.
Miller, who won the giant slalom on Saturday, hit a gate and skied out of the course six gates from the finish on his first run. It was simply a part of ski racing, said the flamboyant ski racer afterward.
Schoenfelder, who won this race a year ago, was the fifth skier out of the start. He fell and appeared to be out. He claimed, however, an injured worker who was near the course interfered with his run, and because of it he fell.
A race jury accepted his explanation and granted him a rerun. On this run he skied well and tied Palander for first after one run. The jury decision thus allowed him a second run for the championship.
Palander bettered Schoenfelder by a few hundredths of a second on this run to place the skiers, at the end of the race, one-two.
Ten countries, including the United States, filed a protest and, said race director Gunther Hujara, new evidence apparently showed Schoenfelder did not follow the rules.
This resulted in the jury voting "unanimously to reject the first decision to allow a provisional rerun and make the run not valid and to take Schoenfelder off the results," said Hujara.
Palander said the decision was right, "that for me it was just a joke he could ski the second run. He skied out the first run and that was it. I tried to concentrate on my own run, and that was my goal. I just saw Rainer in the gate for the second run, and it surprised me."
The Park City course has not been good to Palander, the defending World Cup slalom champion. One year he nearly failed to qualify in the top 30, and last year, despite a great finish to the season, he placed 20th in Park City.
The hero for the America's in the slalom was Rothrock. This is the first time he's made it into the top 10 in a WC race. He started 24th, moved up to 18th and, after a great second run, moved into a three-way tie for eighth.
