European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday february 10,1992 the stars and stripes b Page 21 Winter olympic Flag bearer Koch decides against dip of old glory by Larry Mcshane Albertville France a after much discussion and soul searching Bill Koch decided old glory would Fly right. Koch carrying the american Flag in front of the . Team in saturdays opening ceremonies of the Winter olympics hoped to break with the past by lowering the stars and stripes As he passed the reviewing stand a a gesture of respect to the Host nation. The american Flag Holder has never done the dip a pre new world order tradition which seemed More important in the Days of monarchy the cold War and the evil Empire. A a in a like to do it. Its not really my personal decision. Its up to my teammates a Koch said outside the olympic Park shortly before he entered. A i done to understand it but i respect the athletes  a pair of team representatives discussed the Issue with Koch. A their belief was the majority would not want me to do it a said the Cross country skier who was selected As Flag Holder by his teammates earlier this week. Koch 36, a four time olympian had hoped to Start a new tradition. But his teammates won out Koch walked solemnly opening ceremony past French president Francois Mitterrand and Ioc head Juan Antonio Sam ranch without a flinch. A my feelings arc that the olympics Are a world event. Maybe it is not an appropriate place for excessive nationalism. It s great to be proud. But its also a time to come together As one world a said Koch. A til try to offend As few million people As  the dips were few and far Between As the 64 teams marched past. Only Croatia Bermuda Canada Ana Monaco made noticeable dips while other teams tipped their hats or waved to the reviewing stand. The opening ceremonies entertained an estimated 2 billion people watching worldwide and another 33,000 in the stadium. They marked the return of the Winter games to France after 24 years and Mitte Rand welcomed More than 2,000 athletes from 64 countries. The Star of the 1968 Grenoble games Jean Claude Killy was greeted warmly by the crowd. Killy one of the prime movers behind bringing the games to the Savoy Region captured three skiing golds the last time the olympics were in his Homeland. I j games on televisions Stilt walkers with balloon hats and fantasy suits entertain during opening ceremonies. Central european Tima today Ard German first program a 9 45 .-5 25 . Nordic skiing men s 30 pm men s luge men s Alpine combination downhill 12 05 . Hockey Cis Norway Speed skating women s 500. 8 15-9 . And 11-11 45 . Day s highlights. Bbc1�?11 05  1 50-3 . 11 . Recap of Days events. Bbc2�?6 . Recap of Days events. Euro sports nearly continuous around the clock coverage starting at 6 . Early tuesday an seb�?2 ., general  medal unified skier takes 1 St Gold by the associated press Les daisies France a Lyubov Egorova a freestyle expert from the unified team showed her versatility sunday by winning the women a 15-Kilometer Drassic style Cross country race to claim the first medal in the Winter olympics. Egorova 26, the reigning world 30k freestyle Champion led the race from Start to finish and beat runner up Maikut Lukkarinen of Finland by one minute 9.1 seconds. Egorova covered the distance held for the first time in the olympics in 42 minutes 20.8 seconds. Lukkarinen prevented a 1-2 sweep for the unified team finishing 12.4 seconds ahead of Elena  women top 3,000 Albertville France a world record hold or Gunda Niemann of Germany easily won the olympic Gold in women a 3,000-meter Speed skating sunday finishing nearly three seconds ahead of runner up Heike Amicke also of Germany. _ Niemann timed 4 minutes 19.90 seconds while Amicke did 4 22.88 and Bronze medallist Emese Hunyady of Austria finished in 4 24.64. All of the skaters appeared to be affected by the unusually warm 48-degree weather and the Mushy ice surface. All of the american skaters finished Well Back in the pack. Mary Docter of Madison wis., finished 15th in 4 34.51 As the top american. Sex flame Loob scores twice As Sweden hammers Poland by the associated press Meribel France a Sweden the defending world Champion but never an olympic Champion got two goals from an nil Veteran and a Quick Start sunday toward that missing Gold medal. Hakan Loob a Star on the 1989 Stanley cup Champion Calgary flames and one of 6 with nil experience on the swedish team scored twice in the second period As top seeded Sweden beat 12th-seeded Poland 7-2, in the opener for both. Lars Edstrom also scored twice. Sweden won the world championship last Spring. It finished third in the last three olympics and went medal less in five of the six olympics before that. It lost its last olympic tuneup 3-2, to the United states last wednesday. But on sunday Sweden dominated out shooting Poland 42-9. Edstrom and Patrik Erickson scored before Poland a Janusz Hajnos Cut the Lead to 2-1 with 48 seconds left in the first period. But Loob who had 50 goals for Calgary in 1987-88, grabbed the momentum Back 18 seconds into the second period when he pulled goalie Gabriel Samolej out of the net and scored into the open right Side. In sundays other Early game Finland 5, Germany 1 fresh off its Best olympic hockey performance Ever Finland beat Germany 5-1 in 1992�?Ts first matchup of medal round teams from four years ago. Finland won the Silver medal in the 1988 Calgary Winter games after handing the soviet Union its first olympic hockey loss since 1980. The finns Haven to been quite As successful since finishing fifth in the hockey most recent world championships. Germany which As West Germany beat the United states to get into 1988 s medal round has also stumbled and is ranked ninth. It is the first olympics for the unified German team. Hannu Jarvenpaa one of 10 former nil players on the finnish team scored twice and assisted on goals by Petri Skripko and Timo Velanne. Finland led 3-0 after two periods. Andreas Brock Mann a Power play goal at 4 19 of the third made it 3-1, but Velanne followed with two straight goals to ice it. In sundays final game team Usa was taking on Italy As this edition of the stars and stripes went to press sunday night. In saturdays late games Czechoslovakia 10, Norway 1 sixth seeded Czechoslovakia had a 38-14 shooting advantage Over loth seeded Norway. The score was 4-0 after the first period and 9-1 after the second. Petr Rosol led Czechoslovakia with three  team 8, Switzerland 1 the country with the richest olympic hockey history the soviet Union winners of seven of the last nine Gold medals no longer exists. The squad that stayed together while its country fell apart came to the games As a co favorite with Sweden. Goalie Mikhail stale nov had a shutout for 50 08 when he was replaced by Andrei Tref Ilov who allowed Samuel palmers goal that made the score 8-1 with 7 41 left. Eight players scored for the third seeded unified team. The Swiss Are seeded seventh