1st man in 3rd training, Slovenia's Perko, falls
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) The first starter in the last training run for the men's Olympic downhill, Rok Perko of Slovenia, crashed Saturday, leaving blood on his face and in the snow.
Slovenia's Alpine director, Dusan Blazic, said Perko was taken by car to the athletes village for medical tests.
''Everything is hurting now, but the main problem now is the face and nose,'' Blazic said. ''It looks like he might have broken nose. I doubt he'll race tomorrow.''
Perko landed awkwardly, with his skis splayed, coming off a little jump about 1 1/2 minutes into his session, a day before the first Alpine medal race of the Sochi Games. After a few minutes, he got up and walked away.
When Perko fell, his skis detached from his boots and went flying. He slid down the hill, then hunched on his knees and leaned forward, his head resting on his gloves.
The next two starters, Marco Sullivan of the United States and Brice Roger of France, also had problems. Roger fell but appeared OK; Sullivan stayed upright and skied to the finish.
''I just let my mind lapse for a second, and all of a sudden (my) skis hit together,'' Sullivan said, describing what happened as ''a close call.''
In all, 10 of 55 starters Saturday failed to finish.
