Athlete profile: Kiminobu Kimura

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

If the host country has any hopes for a alpine skiing medal, that would be slalom specialist Kimura...in fact, the Japanese media is all over the 27-year-old after he just missed the podium at the pre-Olympic Events -- a World Cup slalom in Shiga Kogen held last March -- finishing fourth after Norway's Ole Kristian Furuseth, the leader after the first run who almost fell in the second run but hung on to sneak in at third-place...last year was by far the best season for two-time Olympian Kimura; he ended up eighth in the World Cup slalom standings, with three top-fives...now a first seeded skier, Kimura is happiest about the recognition he receives from the fellow racers..."In Europe, I ran into [Alberto] Tomba in the town once, and he said ‘Hi,'" Kimura remembers, laughing. "Of course, I don't speak English or Italian too well, so we didn't talk for too long. But I was like, ‘I'm getting big around here.' In the old days, if Tomba comes down the course toward me during the course inspection, I used to sneak out of his way. It's a big difference"...Japanese athletes have a history of melting under pressure, but Kimura might be different in his third Olympics in Nagano... "I'm very happy that people around expect a lot of me," says Kimura. "It can be a pressure, but to do well in Nagano in front of everyone would be awesome. I'm just going to enjoy the pressure itself. It's something I can only experience now"...Kimura never regarded himself particularly strong under pressure until two years ago, when he went down with a complicated internal disorder...on his back in a hospital for almost two months, Kimura's career was in doubt for awhile, but that was when he came up with a renewed sense of love of the sport..."After the Lillehammer Olympics, I think I was skiing just because it seemed like what I was supposed to do," Kimura says. "But in the hospital, I really wanted to ski. All I could think about was ski racing. It reminded me how much I enjoyed skiing, and since then, hard practice became fun, and because I saw the bottom, the whatever pressure that I might face seems to be a small problem"...considered to posses one of the best techniques in the World Cup, Kimura excells at steep slope with quick turns...Kimura made some technical improvements last year...in a camp in Alaska before the season, he worked to minimize the upper-body movement during the turns..."Too much upper-body movement meant a loss of about one or two hundredth of a second every turn," says Kimura. "So with 50 to 60 turns, by the end, you are a half or a full second behind"...Kimura also studied many of the top skiers on video tapes..."Tomba, [Sebastien] Amiez, and [Jure] Kosir; those guys don't move their head. Their eyes remain on the same level, same distance from the slope all the way down," says Kimura. "I worked to imitate that, and fortunately, I think I got that down"...a change in equipment was also affected Kimura's skiing; he switched the length of his skis from 201 centimeters (79 inches) to 198 centimeters (78 inches)...by shortening the skis, Kimura achieved quicker turns that characterizes his style...but the down side of the shorter skis is that they do not carry the speed well on the flatter parts of the slope, which directly became Kimura's weakness...at Sestriere World Cup in December, Kimura finished 21st and later said in disgust, "I practically stopped at the [flatter] bottom half"...how Kimura would deal with the slower potion of the courses has become a key to his Olympic aspirations...the Shiga Kogen Olympic slalom is one of the quicker courses in the World Cup circuit...it forces Kimura to decide whether to fiddle with his style in order to compete at higher levels in the World Cup or just target the Olympics and quicker hills...Kiminobu, a break-dancer who willingly demonstrates his various moves, says of his pastime, "I want to do it in New York"...Kimura also enjoys "soul dancing" in discos...Kimura grew up in the Japanese skiing hotbed of Aomori...his father makes kimonos, outer garments with elegant patterns, wide sleeves, and a sash, which are part of the traditional costume dress of Japanese men and women...he speaks no English, but understands a stray word or two...