Thumbs Up for Olympic Downhill Course : Skiing: After two days of racing, World Cup skiers say venue for 1994 Winter Games in Norway is among best in the world.

KVITFJELL, Norway —  The 48 hours of downhills on the slopes of Kvitfjell were among the best of the winter for some of the World Cup circuit’s lesser lights. Austrian Armin Assinger won the second race of his career Saturday, 24 hours after France’s Adrien Duvillard won his first. Second in both was Italian Werner Perathoner.

But no one felt more like celebrating than Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee (LOOC) officials, who selected Kvitfjell (White Mountain) as the site for the men’s downhill in next February’s Winter Olympics.

The world’s leading skiers, no more known for speaking with one voice than the Italian Parliament, overwhelmingly praised the course, some even comparing it favorably to Austria’s Kitzbuehel, a shrine for downhillers.

It was like the Hallelujah Chorus, a sharp contrast to the theme of the previous weekend, when the women downhillers were so put off by the ease of their Olympic course at nearby Hafjell that 12 of the top 15 boycotted a training run for the next day’s World Cup race.

They demanded a change of venue for the Olympic women’s downhill to Kvitfjell, which is 28 miles north of Lillehammer.

LOOC officials said they will take the matter under advisement. If they are asked, the men skiers will tell the organizers that the course, with only minor adjustments to reduce the risk of two particularly perilous jumps, could be converted for the women.

Meantime, the men continued Saturday to shovel praise on the course designed after Lillehammer won the Olympic bid in 1988 by former Swiss skier Bernhard Russi, although icy conditions for the second consecutive day played tricks with the results. Five of the top eight finishers were not among the first 15 seeded skiers.

Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, the overall World Cup leader who finished in a fifth-place tie Saturday, called the course one of the world’s three of four best.

“There’s not a second when you can relax,” Atle Skaardal of Norway said. “It deserves to be a classic. Maybe Kitzbuehel is as good, but that’s the only one.”

Tommy Moe of the United States said the course has “good rhythm, flowing all the way down.”

Unfortunately for Moe, he did not flow down with it Saturday, missing a gate early and skiing off the course. Nineteenth in the World Cup downhill standings, he failed to qualify for next week’s final at Aare, Sweden.

His compatriot, AJ Kitt, also missed a gate Saturday and was disqualified, falling to 21st in the standings. But he received a wild-card invitation to the final because of his success on the 1992 circuit.

Even though he was third in the World Championships downhill, Kitt called this season “disastrous.”

Playing no small role in that was bad luck. Twice he was leading downhills that were postponed because of either poor weather or course conditions. The second one, at Aspen, was shifted to Kvitfjell Friday, when Kitt finished 29th. Had he won both of those races, he would be third in the standings.