Olympic Buzz: February 2006 Archives

Here at the very end of the Turin Games, I'm seeing reporters I wasn't even sure were here -- the guys and gals who had been up in the mountains, living there and reporting on skiing, sliding, jumping and shooting.

My colleague, Steve Dilbeck, was among them.

Turns out, some of these guys had a pretty sweet gig. Like my friend from USA Today, who told me about his setup in Sestriere.

Get this: On the LAST night of competition over at the figure and short-track skating venue, which I practically lived at the past fortnight, I tumbled to something:

The staff at the Palavela served canapes and wine to reporters, after competition!

Which means I missed, oh, about three bottles of wine in two weeks. Not that I drink, really, but still ...

While you were sleeping ... Sasha Cohen went to the Palavela arena and practiced. This morning, Thursday, in Turin.

She looked fine. Not ill or sick. Though rumors or one or the other have been sweeping the Olympics since Wednesday, when Sasha skipped practice entirely.

This last 24 hours has got me to thinking about the pressure of these events, particularly the women's skate.

I'm getting ready for the speedskate 1,500 meters, and I'm looking forward to it. This from a guy who can go, oh, three years and 11 months without paying much attention to the sport.

We've got four American gold-medalists in this race, including the IE's own Derek Parra, Sudanese orphan benefactor Joey Cheek and the two guys who have almost reached "This town ain't big enough for the both of us" territory, Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis.

We don't see or hear NBC's coverage over here, but we've seen the stories about ratings begin down, and how American Idol beat up the Olympics last week.

Here's NBC's Dick Ebersol, talking about the Olympics on Monday. The gist: Nothing gets the numbers it used to get, and we're no worse off than everyone else. (Oh, and "make goods" are free commercials TV runs when ratings don't meet a certain negotiated level with advertisers.)

The quotes:

Long-track speedskating would be a very dull venue if not for the hundreds of Dutch fans who help fill it up day after day.

These guys love this kind of skating (Remember "Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates?"), and they treat every race as a sort of carnival, complete with oompah band.

How do we know they're Dutch?

Our dear, sweet Johnny Weir was roughed up by NBC commentator Scott Hamilton, who (if anyone) can say what he darn well pleases because Hamilton actually won Olympic gold.

This is after Weir said he got to the arena late for the free skate, melted down on the ice, dumping half his jumps, and fell from second to fifth.

Not even sure what our mahvelous Johnny Weir meant when he told this to NBC's Mary Carrillo last night.

Perhaps the most pitiful soul I've seen in Turin was U.S. skater Evan Lysacek after he bombed his short program Tuesday night, falling on a triple and stepping out of another. He appeared to be in shock.

Seems like a nice-enough kid. Trains in L.A. with Frank Carroll. But Evan was a broken dude, late Tuesday, just mumbling and rambling.

Here's the audio I got of him in the mixed zone, moments after he came off the ice. He was still going when I left; I couldn't take any more. It was like watching someone dissolve before your eyes.

He skates for the U.S., yet wears an old Soviet Union jacket.

If you can't get enough of Johnny Weir, and a lot of skate fans can't, we're emptying the notebook here. This includes stuff not going into print in the Wednesday newspaper.

He also went off on a tangent, while moving around before about 50 reporters in the "mixed zone", about how he loves Russia and Russian skating, and how he's learning to speak Russian ... but he was out of my earshot when he said all that stuff.

Hey, maybe Michelle should have given herself a few more days, see if the medicos could have transplanted a groin from a cadaver or something, or maybe she could have trekked over to Lourdes and had that groin blessed ...

Because the Ring Heads are ragging on her replacement, Emily Hughes, pretty fiercely.

Curling is bizarre, with a terminology all its own. This isn't the worst example, by far, but I just got this out of my e-mail inbox.

Once it turned daylight in New York, reporters here (and in the U.S.) did a conference call with Michelle Kwan's replacement, Emily Hughes.

I was sitting next to the journalist who said, "I feel bad I'm the one who made her cry, but somebody had to do it."

I feel kinda bad for the journalists who were on their way to the men's downhill, way up at Sestriere. Some of those people are the lead columnists for their newspapers, or reporters who are here on their own, with no backup/colleagues. I feel bad because Michelle Kwan is the story of the day, unless Bode Miller wins the downhill -- or explodes trying. And even then ...