The Sports Illustrated Olympic Daily is published in Salt Lake City and available in event venues and on newsstands for 16 straight days during the 2002 Winter Games. Here are some sights and scenes from today’s edition.

Alberto Tomba    ALPINE SKIING

Olympic Highlights: Double gold medalist in the slalom and giant slalom in 1988

Off skis, La Bomba (at the 1992 Albertville Games) is as flashy as ever. Carl Yarbrough

Tomba has always been a performer who plays to the back row. Dubbed La Bomba by the press in his native Italy, he was a brash and daring crowd pleaser on the slopes, once gushing, "I am the new messiah of skiing!" He lived life in similarly ebullient fashion, partying like a rock star throughout a 13-year career that included 50 World Cup wins. Now 35 and retired since 1998, Tomba lives in Monte Carlo but makes frequent trips to his native Italy to visit his parents in the town of San Lazzaro di Savena, near Bologna. He does promotional work for the sportswear company Fila and is a spokesman for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. Some things, however, have not gone La Bomba's way. He made headlines recently for a tax-evasion case brought in Bologna for his alleged failure to report $11 million in endorsement earnings. (He was acquitted on Jan. 31.) His foray into acting has also been a disappointment; two years ago he played a tough-guy cop in Alex the Ram, a film that vanished from Italian theaters almost as quickly as Tomba once barreled down mountainsides. These Games, too, are not easy for Tomba; he competed in the last four Winter Olympics, winning five medals. "It will be very emotional to watch for the first time," Tomba says. "I miss the fans most of all."

—Mark Beech