1992 Winter Olympics: Peaks & Valleys

— MOST HEART-STOPPING SPORT

Olympic hockey, turning rough-and-tumble, provided some of the most electric moments in the Games. Among them: Canada’s 4-3 victory over Germany, which ended in a tie breaker when a German-launched puck blasted under the goalie, then trickled to a halt on — but not over — the goal line.

— BIGGEST HIGH AND LOW FOR ONE ATHLETE

Only 24 hours after Italian skier Deborah Compagnoni won the gold medal in the super-G, she crashed in the giant slalom and suffered a ligament tear that ended her season.

— MOST NOBLE IN DEFEAT

^ U.S. speed skater Dan Jansen, who finished an unexpectedly poor 26th in the 1,000-m event, answered a barrage of journalists’ questions — no matter how boorish — with patience and dignity.

— MOST SOPHISTICATED SKATING OUTFIT

Amid all the gaudy handkerchief hems and epaulets, Nancy Kerrigan’s simple, lemon-yellow costume for the original program stood out as the kind of thing Grace Kelly might have worn if she’d been a figure skater.

— MOST EXACTING TIE SCORE

American Diann Roffe and Austrian Anita Wachter both won silver medals in the giant slalom after finishing in the same hundredth of a second: 2:13.71.

— MOST EMBARRASSING TRAFFIC JAM

Even though he had a 40-sec. head start, Moroccan El Hassan Mahta was “lapped” in the men’s giant slalom by Lebanon’s Raymond Kayrouz, who careered past the slower Mahta. Both skiers missed gates and were disqualified.

— WORST PUBLICITY MATERIAL

The Chinese team brochure made a grand declaration of universal friendship, then refused to divulge anything friendly or otherwise about the athletes except their dates of birth.

— MOST IRASCIBLE RELATIVE

Helmut Girardelli, autocratic father and coach of Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli, entered a restricted area and insisted that a barrier on the Face de Bellevarde course be moved to allow skiers a safer turn. Furious race officials confiscated his credentials for interfering, but they moved the barrier.

— WORST DILETTANTE, ROYAL DIVISION

Prince Albert of Monaco, whose bobsled wound up in 43rd place in a field of 46 competitors.

— BEST COMEBACK FROM AN ILLNESS

Just a week after being released from the hospital with a painful inflamed pancreas, Norwegian speed skater Johann Olav Koss won a gold medal in the 1500-m event.

— WORST LOSERS

After Italian skiers Josef Polig and Gianfranco Martin finished 1-2 in the Alpine combined event, bumping a fourth-place Frenchman from the medal stand, French ski officials tried to have them disqualified on the grounds that the advertising on the winners’ jackets was too large. Olympic officials declined to intervene, declaring, “Medals are won on the ground, not in offices.”

— MOST BITING REBUKE TO A LAGGING TEAM

When a leading Swedish newspaper, Expressen, ran two full pages dedicated to the “successes” of the Swedish Olympians, the space was blank. “There weren’t any,” read an explanation at the bottom of the pages. Swedish Alpine skier Pernilla Wiberg later won a gold medal in the women’s giant slalom.

ECHOES

“Congratulations, Alberto. Thank you very much, me.”

— ITALY’S ALBERTO TOMBA

After winning gold in the giant slalom

“You know, the regular four-letter stuff. The universal language.”

— CANADIAN HOCKEY STAR ERIC LINDROS

On what he said during a run-in with a Unified Team member

“When you’re in the air, you just have to accept that you’re in the air and have a good time up there.”

— U.S. SKIER KRISTA SCHMIDINGER

Describing a treacherous bump on the women’s downhill course

“We’d like to see more girls. We cannot even use the condoms that are provided.”

— FINNISH HOCKEY PLAYER KEIJO SAILYNOJA

Complaining about the isolation of his accommodations

“I just flew.”

— FINNISH WUNDERKIND SKI JUMPER TONI NIEMINEN