Sport: Cold Fury

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The world's No. 1 bobsledder is a coal-and-ice dealer from Cortina, Italy. Eugenio Monti, 32, broke both legs in a skiing accident years ago; one cheek is deeply scarred from a splintering crash two years ago at St. Moritz, when his sled turned a double-somersault. "Brakes?" snorts Monti. "You should use them only to stop at the finish."

Redheaded Gene Monti spends his idle hours polishing the Swedish steel runners of his sled to a high glint, lovingly stores them away in wrappings of lamb's wool.

Before a race he clumps up and down the course, a fireplug figure with eyes of icy blue looking for the crack or bump that could cost a precious hundredth of a second. On the Cortina run last month, Monti won his fourth straight two-man world title by teaming with Brakeman Renzo Alvera (who ekes out a living sweeping the local rink). In the four-man competition, Monti was back in third place on the final day when he laconically informed his crew that he was going for broke. Rocketing with controlled fury down the icy run, Monti gave his crew such a ride that they won the world championship by .21 sec. "All I ask is that my crew sit quiet," says Monti. "They can even close their eyes if they like."

Left out of the Olympics because not enough nations showed interest in their hell-bent sport, Monti and his fellow bobsledders gathered at Lake Placid, N.Y. to show what they could do. (Lake Placid's run is a vestige of the 1932 Winter Olympics, and the only run in North America.) As the new boy on the course, Monti dutifully made two trial runs from the halfway mark before the officials would turn him loose. Scorning the U.S.-style steering wheel, he handled the steering ropes with the sensitive, iron hands of a jockey, hit speeds close to 90 m.p.h. At the 180° Shady Corner curve, he swung high on its sheer wall, then dropped surely down to the narrow slotted straight away to pick up precious speed. When the times were computed, Monti had won the National A.A.U. two-man championship. What was more, Monti's best time of 1:12 broke the course record by .6 sec.

Just to show it was no mistake, Monti six days later took the North American championship for two-man sled, this week came from behind to win the four-man sled title and set a new course record.