European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 17, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wylie feat outsmart the experts Veteran . Figure skater Paul Wylie Given Little Chance to succeed before the olympics began wears his unexpected Silver medal after an electric performance in saturday nights finals. Story on Page 26. Norway glides to 4-medal Day on slopes ice from wire reports Norway a land of ice and Snow reaped its rewards a 4 medals a on French versions of those surfaces sunday at the Winter games. At Val do Sere norwegian skiers took Gold and Bronze in the menus super giant slalom where Marc Girardelli broke one olympic Jinx and Franck Piccard extended another. The race was won by 20-year-old Kjetil Andre Aamodt a giant slalom and slalom expert who had not done Well in super a this year despite earning a Silver medal in the discipline in the world championships last season. Aamodt a time was 1 minute 13.04 seconds. Girardelli the four time world cup Overall Champion who had never won an olympic Metal won the Silver in 1 13.77. The Bronze went to Jan Einar Thorsen Winner of the downhill portion of the combined last monday in 1 13.83. Piccard of France was the defending olympic super a Champion and had won a Silver in the downhill last sunday. He was among the heavy favourites Here but he fell in the top part of the course preserving the Jinx against defending champions. No Alpine skier has won the same event at two olympics. In a big Day for the norwegians slalom specialist Ole Christian Furuseth was fourth in 1 13.87. The top american finisher was Jeff Olson of Bozeman mont., in 1 15.06, Good for 13th. The norwegians continued their sunday assault in menus 1,500-meter Speed skating at Albertville where Johann Olav Koss a three event world record Holder who was hospitalized a week ago edged norwegian teammate ande Sondra. The stars and stripes february 17,1992 c Page 28 Koss bouncing Back from a disappointing sixth place finish in last thursday s 5,000, to win the Gold medal in 1 54.81, just four hundredths of a second faster than Sondrall a 1 54.85. Leo Visser of the Netherlands took the Bronze in 1 54.90. Americans Eric Flaim the Surprise Silver medallist four years ago failed to place in 1 59.60 a nearly five seconds behind Koss in 24th place. Flaim became ill saturday night with food poisoning after eating a fish dinner and feared he  skate. The rest of the Day belonged to 16-year-old Toni Nieminen. The finnish ski jumper added another chapter to his history making olympic performance with a Gold in the 120-meter jump. Nieminen had the two longest jumps of the Day a 400 feet 3 inches and 403-6 a to Edge austrian rivals Martin Hoel Warth and Heinz kuttin.. Medal path runs through swedes Meribel France a the . Hockey team has just one Chance to dance with France keep Sweden from avenging the shame in Chamonix. The top seed s at stake for the undefeated . Team which got another shutout from red hot goalie Ray Leblanc in Downing Poland 3-0 saturday night to take Over first place in group a. A a you a like to have the highest seed you can because in theory that gives you an easier games in the medal round quarterfinals . Coach Dave Peterson said. A if we finish first wed come Back against France. But if we finish  it a be a whole a nother hockey game. The United states 4-0 meets Sweden 3-0-1 in tonight a preliminary round finale. A win or tie would give America the top seed in its group setting up tuesdays quarterfinal against Spunky but Talent poor France. A loss would drop the . Team to no. 2. That would mean a wednesday clash with either the unified team a the dreaded olympic hockey russians a or Czechoslovakia the team that beat the unified team in preliminary play. A you done to want to finish second in that Pool. You a much rather play France than the russians a said Canada coach Dave King. A Sweden can to afford to lose. Neither can the . It la be a real Tough  its a rematch of their intense and physical pre olympic encounter of feb. 5 in Chamonix about a 2w-hour bus ride from Meribel. The americans though outplayed won 3-2 by outfitting the world champions. A we look Forward to meeting the United states again a swedish assistant coach Curt Lund Mark said a because we Are a Little bit shamed by the game in  there a no shame so far for the United states. Through their first four games two losses in �?T88, the americans allowed 23 goals. In this tournament they have Given up four a including Only one in the last Loper ods. Leblanc has been spectacular in goal conjuring up images of 1980 Golden boy Jim Craig and the defense has been solid. A the Guys in front of me have been just great a said Leblanc the Only olympic goalie with two shutouts. A i done to feet i have to play like a  Sweden a roster includes Sweet skating former nil stars like Hakan Loob Mats Naslund Boije calming and Bengt Ake Gustafsson. The swedish style is similar to that of Finland which the United states beat 4-1  Force cagers topple 21 St ranked step air Force Academy Colo. Apr before saturday no one knew the last time air Force had beaten a ranked team. Or for that matter if it had Ever happened. Now everyone knows. Otis Jones and Dale French each scored 15 Points and were accurate at the foul line to Lead air Force past no. 21 Texas Elpaso 75-72 saturday night. It was the first time air Force 8-15, 2 other College basketball a p. 22 9 had beaten a ranked team since joining the wac in 1980. The school said it was not certain whether the Falcons had previously beaten a rated team. Air forces Victory was its first against step 18-5, 8-4 in 24 meetings since Jan. 21,1981. A to me this is the biggest win we be had a coach Reggie Minton said. Jones who clinched the Victory with two free throws with 11 seconds left was 6 for 6 from the foul line and French was 8 of 10. The Falcons made 31 of 36 foul shots while the miners made Only 17 of 32. A we were playing hard but we just seemed to Stop a step coach Don Haskins said a we came Here from new Mexico. Maybe that had something to do with it. Our Guys seemed to get  sports bulls grab tight win Over kicks a Page 21 Earnhardt wins 3rd in 3 Days a Page 25 Becker rallies past courier a Page 27 Walker finishes 7th in bobsled a Page 27 Davey Allison tops Daytona a Page 25