CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland--Alberto Tomba threw himself to the ground at the finish line, rolled on his back and burst into tears. Then he stripped to his undershirt and hugged his sister.

"It is really great, unbelievable," he said, wiping the tears with snow. "I am so emotional."

In a startling reversal of his poor showing at the Olympics, Tomba won the last World Cup slalom of the season yesterday.

His 50th career victory came as many were anticipating his retirement announcement after nearly two years of mediocre performances.

"This was a very important win for me, especially after in Nagano," said Tomba, who failed in Japan to add to his collection of five Olympic medals. "For me, today's victory is more than a gold medal. It is a platinum one."

He was timed in I minute, 42.84 seconds. Olympic slalom champion, Hans-Petter Buraas of Norway, was second, 14-hundredths of a second behind. Norway's Finn Christian Jagge was third.

The 31-year-old Italian reenacted a scene from his heyday. Pumped by the cheers of 11,000 fans, Tomba took off his skis and hurled them into the crowd. Then he tossed his poles, gloves, hat and goggles.

He proceeded to tear off his clothing layer by layer, to end up with just a sleeveless blue undershirt and the bottom half of his racing suit.