Word: fahrner
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...race, the 100-meter freestyle, a fast-gun start left everyone except U.S. Veteran Rowdy Gaines flatfooted, and Gaines, who is retiring, set an Olympic record. West German Thomas Fahrner got so angry at himself for failing to qualify for the 400-meter freestyle that in the consolation he broke the brand-new Olympic record just set by George DiCarlo of the U.S. He got an Olympic record, a big hand, but no medal...
...member of the Austrian ski team from 1948 to 1951, Fahrner did it with a crew of 45 workers and a network of pipes and hoses that wound 25 miles up Whiteface Mountain. They sprayed water under pressure to create a fine mist that froze instantly and settled on the slopes. In all, 10% miles of slopes have been covered to a depth of as much as 15 ft. For skiing, the man-made snow is not only as good as the natural thing; it is better. The crystal structure of man-made snow is denser; it forms smaller flakes...
Lean and vigorous, Fahrner has taken a mountainside and turned it into a ski racer's snow sculpture. With swarming Caterpillars and snow packers, he has added bumps and rolling terrain to the course, piling up snow here, scraping some away there, molding an ideal racing network. "The skiers will see some things that are quite different than when we had the World Cup races here last year," he says. "The courses are much tougher, much more technical and difficult...
...Fahrner broke his back in a ski-lift accident a month before the Olympics, but last week, wearing a brace, he was out on the course, prowling the mountain in a Sno-Cat, shouting into a walkie-talkie over the roar of the diesel engine...
...storm did come, Fahrner would send up scores of workmen on skis to pack down the new snow in order to give the competitors a solid surface...