(FILES) Italian skier Alberto Tomba clears a gate during the first run of the men's giant slalom 25 February 1988 in Nakiska at the Calgary Winter Olympic Games. Tomba went on to win the gold medal. Alberto Tomba was in a Rome bookstore where he was presenting his new autobiography "The Longest Slalom" weeks before the start of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. He is one of the icons of Italian winter sports, a dashing skier who won three Olympic golds who won over an army of fans for his skills on the slopes and his off-piste personality. Now 59, "Tomba la Bomba", or "Tomba the Bomb", lives a less frenetic lifestyle than the one he had when his electric skiing made him a force in the slalom and giant slalom, the disciplines in which he won all five of his Olympic medals in the late 1980s and 1990s. (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP via Getty Images)