REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: An inside look at the 2002 Games (03/17/02)

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: An inside look at the 2002 Games

by Andrew Nynka

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - At the closing ceremony Mitt Romney declared Salt Lake City's handling, and the overall outcome, of the 19th Winter Olympic Games a tremendous success. His pat on the back sounded good booming out of the loudspeakers but, although Games organizers did have much to be proud of, the view was different from the ground for The Weekly's one-man Olympic "staff."

Without question, Mr. Romney and his Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) should be commended for their handling of security issues during the games. Be it the Air National Guard helicopters flying overhead, the multitude of secret service personnel patrolling Olympic venues or the security screening and x-ray points established at seemingly every turn, I never felt more secure.

But the Games had a different feel than the tightly knit winter wonderland portrayed on TV. Olympic venues were a scattered circle with an approximate radius of over 60 miles and the city of Salt Lake its center. I was looking to find a quaint village nestled in a mountain resort with everybody milling around some rustic Main Street, but the best I could find was Park City.

However, calling the silver-mining boomtown the hotbed of Olympic activity would be inaccurate, considering the home of the Sundance Film Festival hosted only six of the combined 78 Olympic medal events.

With the necessity of post 9/11 security in the United States, it's not unreasonable to claim that the rest of the venues - enclosed like mini-fortresses and guarded by small armies - also lacked a certain small-town, Winter Olympic feel.

And perhaps because of this new era of high security, delivered to us by the realization that terrorism can touch us all, the Winter Olympic Games may never again come tightly wrapped around Barcelona's mysterious streets (1992) or charming Norwegian villages (1994).

Indeed, the Games are expanding and will almost certainly continue to do so. Claims of Salt Lake City being the largest Winter Games will last only until 2006, when Torino, Italy, seems destined to take the title.

Even the high-security residential zone of the Olympic Village, where athletes could eat, sleep, train and mingle amongst themselves, was separate from Olympic activity.

It was precisely this distance and separation between events and venues that made manning The Weekly's one-man "bureau" a logistical challenge as the assignment involved shooting photos, covering and writing stories, conducting interviews and traversing the distance between events, the hotel and the Main Media Center.

Although there was no one specific city square or main boulevard containing a special "Olympic magic" where all gathered, it was most definitely in the air.

You could feel it walking in downtown Salt Lake City - it was evident in the expressions and well wishes of the 25,000 (mostly Mormon) volunteers as they tried, usually unsuccessfully, to help me navigate the seemingly endless routes of shuttles traveling the half an hour north to the Ice Sheet or Snowbasin ski area in Ogden, the hour ride south to the Peaks Ice Arena in Provo or the hour-and-a-half ride east to Deer Valley Resort that hosted alpine and freestyle skiing events.

Perhaps, in this year of fervently strong American patriotism, the distance was actually a positive factor for the Games - better for the hundreds of international tourists who came to be a part of the Olympic ideal, a celebration of various cultures and backgrounds, and not an American football pep rally.

The venues themselves were fine. Some were well-planned, while others seemed a nightmare with lines of tourists, media and VIPs waiting their turn to be thoroughly poked and prodded by guards at security checkpoints. The VIPs came with skis and free passes in hand, while I awaited my call to another three-hour round-trip shuttle ride to cover the next event.

The best organized were the E Center and Peaks ice arenas, where the world's greatest hockey players stretched their skills on the larger Olympic ice and left memorable women's and men's final showdowns between the United States and Canada (in case you missed it, Canada won both games).

However, some of the most skilled and fastest hockey came in the early rounds where East European teams, composed almost solely of amateurs, such as Latvia and Slovenia, clashed on the wide open European ice.

The National Hockey League decided it would suspend play for only the final round of Olympic competition, in order to offer its players the ability to represent their national clubs. However, the move left those national teams most in need of professional talent without some of their best players during the preliminary rounds. It's thanks to Bobby Clark, general manager for the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, that one of Ukraine's top scorers, Ruslan Fedotenko, was able to split his time during the preliminary round playing for his national team and his professional club team. Mr. Fedotenko was joined on the Ukrainian team by fellow NHLers Dmitri Khristich, Sergei Varlamov and Alexei Ponikarovsky.

I'm left wondering what might have been if Ukraine had faced Belarus armed with its professional players - the same ones who helped upset Switzerland and later went on to beat France.

Or if athletes such as luger Lilia Ludan and men's aerialist Stanislav Kravchuk, who finished sixth and fifth, respectively, only had that little break go their way.

Though only a small number of Ukraine's athletes were near medal contention, they still managed significant fan-based support - most of it from Mormon youngsters with blue-and-yellow flags and hockey jerseys. Many of them reminisced to The Weekly of their missionary days spent in the eastern Donbas or central Kyivan regions.

And yet, one of the trip's more memorable moments had nothing to do with sport. With the Hopak as its highlight and signature piece, the Brigham Young University International Folk Dance Ensemble entertained Salt Lake and its visitors with the color and artistry of Ukrainian dance at the Ethnic Village located on the corner of State Street and 400 South. It's almost astonishing to note that not one of the troupe's members had more than four years of training in Ukrainian dance.

A moment should be taken here to specifically thank Laryssa Barabash-Temple who was able to secure what surely would have otherwise been impossible. It was through her efforts that The Ukrainian Weekly was accredited among the press covering the 19th Winter Olympic Games.

All in all, Ukraine's athletes took part in 12 of the total 15 events - many of them performing above expectations. And yet we can't help think about the dismal women's biathlon performance.

Perhaps in the future, as Ukraine's bureaucrats realize their athletes need better support, both financially and emotionally, we'll not only see more Ukrainians on the medals platforms but the introduction of - my personal dream - a Ukrainian national curling team.

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