At first, I apologize all of you who expect datas
and exact informations.
I will write this journal from my memory only.
18/2/1995
The first day was just bad... it was snowing.
I've never been to Furano, and of course, my friend Tomomi and I'd never seen alpine world cup races in live.
It was snowing from the morning.
Giant slalom race had planned - but start time was delayed.
Surprisingly, the it was delayed, but started!!... but after the start of 16th racer,
(the racer was Lasse Kjus, I think),
the giant slalom race was canselled
and rescheduled on February 20, Monday.
Be patient, I would like to tell you cbout my favourites before Furano.
My favourites are Kjetil Andre Aamodt, Jure Kosir, Marc Girardelli, and Christian Mayer.
At the night of February 18,
there was a drawing for the slalom race in Furano Prince Hotel.
I try to remind Top 15 at that time.
Alberto Tomba, Jure Kosir, Kjetil Andre Aamodt, Bernhard Gstrein, Thomas Stangassinger, Ole Kristian Furuseth, Finn Christian Jagge, Marc Girardelli, Bernhard Bauer, Yves Dimier, Sebastian Amiez, Michael von Gruenigen... excuse me, I forgot others... and my new fave from slalom race on next day, Mario Reiter!
I tried to take photos of all the racers who attended drawing, but I failed because I'm not so good photographer now and then.
Well, you can easily imagine - I failed to take Mario's ohoto at that time!!!
After film developing, it means, after my crush with Mario,
I was really depressed...
19/2/1995
The day's slalom race was won by present Japanese women team coach, Michael Tritscher.And 3rd place was Ole Kristian Furuseth.
Guess who was 2nd on the day!!
I wanted "unusual" person to win.
I mean, I didn't want - excuse me- Alberto Tomba to win.
Yes, he didn't finish the race as "usual" in Japan.
During race, I was just excited.
I knew Mario Reiter, but just his name because he finished a lot of races
that season - maybe all of the race but I'm not sure now.
I knew he was a rookie in alpine world cup, so I thought why not to cheer such a man!
Yeah, Mario got second place.
It was the first podium for him too.
On the podium, there were only Elan ski users,
so the photo was used in advertisement for a year.
I was so happy - I could see Mario on every magazine!!
Far from podium, I told Tomomi at that time.
"Oh I really like Mario Reiter now. I will cheer him tomorrow."
In our hotel, some photos of races were already developed and shown.
Tomomi said,
"I can understand why you like Mario...
his eyes look like Gerhard Berger ( who is our favourite Austrian ex-Formula 1 racer and now he's the chief of BMW Formula 1 project)."
To tell the truth, I still can NOT agree with her opinion...
20/2/1995
It was sooo fine day!
The re-scheduled giant slalom was held on Monday.
Mario was 18th start.
I remember it because I took a lot of photo at that time!
Until June '95, I didn't have proper camera but I couldn't stop taking photos which usually hard to recognize who is Mario or any other person...
During the race, I've already moved to near podium.
I believed Mario would be on the podium as the day before.
...and he DID it!
The winner was Mario, of course, and 2nd was Jure Kosir.
3rd was Harald Christian Strand Nilsen.
4th and 5th was Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt.
6th was Dimier or Amiez... poor my memory!
I tried to get nearer to the podium, and, fortunately succeed!
I'm happy to see Mario's first win in live.
I'm very proud of it - thank God!!
Laugh at me, I still have the photo of Mario at Furano,
even after winning Olympic gold medal.
At that time, I had never talked with him, but - or so, it might be my precious memory.
BUT!!!
I heard some funny story around start-house from my friend.
It's quite funny but I'd better stop to tell now...
Jure Kosir, at the drawing of slalom
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