TORINO: Alpine: Mancuso's serviceman takes a gold-medal run, sans culottes

TORINO: Alpine: Mancuso’s serviceman takes a gold-medal run, sans culottes{mosimage}SESTRIERE, Italy – Julia Mancuso’s serviceman Andrea Vianello skied down the mountain in his underwear following Mancuso’s gold-medal performance in the giant slalom Friday.

He wore black boxer briefs in near-whiteout conditions.

‘It was so cold’ said Vianello after he got dressed. ‘Now I have to take a shower because I am so cold. Maybe tomorrow I’m sick, but I don’t care because we have a gold medal.’

Vianello made the run to fulfill a gentleman’s bet he made with a coach of the U.S. women’s team. He waited until the last racer completed her race, then disrobed and skied the entire run, which dropped 340 meters in blowing snow.

The official results did not list Vianello’s time, but showed that it was 20.3 degrees Fahrenheit at the start and 22.6 at the finish.

‘When Julia comes down she wins’ said Vianello, recounting the episode in a telephone interview. ‘I take off all my stuff, and then I waited for the last girls and then Christa, our physio, she brought all my clothes down and backpack. It was very nice.’

U.S. Ski Team physiologist Christa Riepe, who hurried down the hill ahead of Vianello, said that when he arrived at the finish, he didn’t appear that uncomfortable at all, having just helped his athlete win a gold medal. ‘I think he’s started a tradition’ said Riepe.

Vianello has tuned skis for Alberto Tomba and Giorgio Rocca. He is an unassuming Italian man whose English has improved greatly in the last year as he worked with California-bred Mancuso.

‘NBC was there with a camera’ said Vianello. ‘Maybe we have some surprise on the U.S. TV.’