Olympic Preview: The Foreign Favorites

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No fewer than six Swedish skiers have qualified for the Olympics; in World Cup standings, they hold the two top positions and five of the top ten. The team's most celebrated star is 6-ft. 2-in. Gunde Svan, 26, who medaled in all four cross-country events at Sarajevo. "Wonder" Gunde, as he is known in the Swedish press, occasionally leavens his workaholic ways with zany ideas. In 1985 he provoked frantic rules discussions among officials when he announced he would soon start using a single extra-long pole, gondola-style.

The team's legendary veteran is Thomas Wassberg, who ranks tenth internationally. Now 31, he has been on the squad since he won a European junior championship at 17, and Calgary may be his last hurrah. He will be missed, both for his sleepy off-course demeanor (hence his nickname "the Sack") and his sportsmanship; at the 1980 Olympics he offered to share the gold medal in the 15-km with a Finnish skier who finished a whisker-thin two- thousandths of a second behind him. Wassberg took much of 1986 off, then stormed back last year, and could win the 30-km race.

Sweden's best medal hopes, however, are probably Svan and Torgny Mogren, 24, his childhood buddy. Mogren had been in Svan's shadow, but came on to take the 1987 World Cup. Svan has long since recovered from a lingering virus that made last year a disappointment. This season the two friends have seesawed back and forth on top of the World Cup standings. Last month Mogren slipped once again into first place, but Svan maintains with Viking assurance:, "I have never run faster than I do now."