By Laurie Babinski
Editor in Chief
The times they are a changin’.
The Olympics never used to involve metal detectors, airspace restrictions and months of debate over drug testing. The Games were a test of the wills, skill and determination woven together to withstand the ever-present pressure of the gold, tugging to pull each athlete apart.
Today, however, the true spirit of the Games is shrouded behind signs of the times — drug testing and athlete management — and behind the shadow of the two fallen towers of the World Trade Center. But can the spirit of the Olympics shine through the darkness?
The Salt Lake City Games will undoubtedly be a different kind of Olympics.
There’s less gold at the Olympics, but Salt Lake City is more secure than Fort Knox. Understandably, the Olympic incidents — a massacre in 1972 in Munich and the Centennial Park bombing in 1996 in Atlanta — along with Sept. 11 have left the IOC and Salt Lake City officials wary. Olympic organizers and local politicians say that security during the Olympics will be tight, with an 8,000-strong force of police, public health and military personnel watching over the events and patrolling the airport and downtown.
And as always, controversy abounds. Athletes have defended supplement use during drug-test debacles. The IOC banned the use of the Ground Zero flag as America’s flag in the opening parade of nations. The committee then reversed the decision in a compromise that will balance patriotism with protocol. The tattered World Trade Center flag will be part of the opening ceremonies but not part of the main procession.
After all, no one ever said the Olympics would go off without a hitch.
But as the parade of flags and athletes takes center stage tomorrow night, all that won’t matter. The record $2 billion spent on the Games will be just a drop in the bucket.
The spirit of the Olympic Games will prevail.
It will be found in the athletes who can feel the reward after four years of training and qualifying for these Games.
It will be uncovered in the 16-year-old ice skater Sarah Hughes, who struggles to overcome the accusations in technique while finding herself likened to Tara Lipinski, who upset Michelle Kwan in 1998 to snag Olympic gold.
But don’t overlook the 21-year-old Kwan, who will attempt to complete her spectacular career with the one element she is missing — a golden disc of precious metal.
It will be found in the skeleton, an event making its first appearance in the Games since 1948. Skeleton involves athletes rocketing head first at more than 80 miles per hour, heads scraping against the ice on a 4,380-foot track that drops 430 vertical feet.
It will be discovered in the skiers’ adrenaline as they race down the hill in the 10 events, evenly divided between men and women, from the Snowbasin Ski Area, a downhill course considered by the athletes and coaches one of the most challenging ever.
“The hills are long and steep — that’s why they picked that mountain,” said junior Zack Nielsen, who skied at various Utah mountains over winter break. “It (Snowbasin) has a big long drop that catered to the events.” On that hill, downhill and super-G participants only get one run, one shot at the gold.
Racers in the super-G will drop nearly 2,000 feet through 30 to 35 gates in less than two minutes. Watch for Picabo Street, who has come back from serious right knee and left leg injuries sustained in a crash a month after winning the super-G gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.
It may be found in the men’s hockey scramble to the finish. For the second consecutive Olympics, the National Hockey League will break from its regular-season schedule to allow its best players to play in Utah.
Of the 14 nations participating, six — the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden and Finland — are guaranteed advancement to the eight-team medal based on their 1998 Olympic results, where the Czech Republic ran away with the prize.
While Nielsen is ready to watch, his thinks the chances of a U.S. gold are slim. “If we get a medal, we’ll be good,” Nielsen said. “The Canadians are looking pretty good, so are the (Russians).”
But no matter how much the times change or what the sport, more than nations, controversies or security concerns, the athletes will prevail. After all, that’s what the Olympic Games are all about.
February 07, 2002