Skiing / World Cup -- Bjornsson Races Into Second, Putting Iceland Into The Mix

PARK CITY, Utah - The public address announcement boomed out: "And here we have a skier from Israel."

No, what we have here is Kristinn Bjornsson, a skier from Iceland, although it is perhaps understandable that the three-letter code for the island country in the north Atlantic (ISL) could be mistaken for that of Israel (ISR).

That, and the fact that, until yesterday, Iceland had made little impact on the skiing world dominated by countries in northern and central Europe.

"No! They said that?" Bjornsson, 25, said after completing a World Cup slalom run for the first time in a five-race career. "Well, now they know."

If they didn't know after the first run, they sure did after the second, in which Bjornsson vaulted from 17th place to, incredibly, second place behind Olympic champion Thomas Stangassinger of Austria.

Despite being handicapped with start number 49, Bjornsson was only 1.60 seconds behind Austria's Thomas Sykora in the first run.

"I wasn't satisfied with the way I was skiing but I'm happy with my time," Bjornsson said. "I was fighting all the time but I had some problems in the steep part. I was a little surprised at the time. I kept the tempo and kept fighting so I didn't lose too much time.

"This is my fifth World Cup and the first run I've finished. I'm so excited for the second run because I know I can ski much better."

Bjornsson was so right. His second run of 49.13 seconds was .59 faster than Stangassinger, who won by a mere .10 seconds.

"It's great. It's unbelievable. I gave everything, took a lot of chances," Bjornsson said. "It's unbelievable, it's like a dream."

Bjornsson's historic effort provided a big payback on the investment made by his home village of Olafssfjordur, population 1,200, on Iceland's north shore.

Traveling the world to race is an expensive proposition and Bjornsson estimated it costs about $20,000 to keep him going from November to March. He gets some support from the national ski federation, and his neighbors pass the hat to help pay his bills.

"It's small companies in the town and the town itself. I know everybody in town and they support me," he said. "They've been doing it the last three years, putting money in for me."

Bjornsson grew up about 100 yards from the town's ski hill and was racing from age 5. At 17, he moved to Norway for school and skiing.

"That's where it began. I was racing all the time. I was the Iceland junior champion. It was very difficult to start skiing there because there were so many great racers. But I've always wanted to be the best, to get to the top, and that's what kept me going."