Just in Time, Games Have Moments to Remember

In a shocking development, no less startling than Michelle Kwan losing the gold medal or the Czech Republic eliminating Canada from the men’s hockey tournament, the Nagano Olympics became memorable Friday.

At the two-week mark, the most indelible images from these Games were Hermann Maier head-butting a mountain, the U.S. hockey party boys playing kegger with the hotel fire extinguisher and the forever blinking advisory on the “Info ‘98” computer results system--Today’s Alpine skiing delayed until further notice.

But on Day 15, shortly before the 5.0 earthquake that briefly turned Nagano City into the world’s largest rumbling bobsled, twin tremors of excitement rocked the Games, instantly transforming them from ordinary to unforgettable.

First there was Dominik Hasek wielding the big glove at Big Hat, providing a one-man refresher course on why he is the reigning most valuable player in the NHL.

Hasek not only held mighty Team Canada to one goal through 70 minutes of regulation and overtime, but he shut out--as in 0-for-5--Eric Lindros, Brendan Shanahan, Ray Bourque, Theoren Fleury and Joe Nieuwendyk in a mind-boggling mano a mano shootout.

Then, before Canadians back home could climb off the living room carpet and revive themselves with cold compresses and hard liquor, Tara Lipinski performed the unthinkable and sent Kwan back to Lake Arrowhead with something silver in her carry-on baggage.

This did not seem an available option when the women’s figure skating long program commenced Friday night at White Ring arena. Kwan had stayed on her feet during the short program, she had worked out the rookie Olympian shakes, she had won the short program, beating the technically obsessed Lipinski at her own game.

Kwan was primed for the coronation. Only CBS, on hand to record history and hold it for 15 hours, was equipped to delay Kwan’s glorious triumph.

Lipinski was along for the evening’s entertainment, a tiny silver charm attached to Kwan’s golden bracelet, a cute little accessory, like a stuffed Snowlet, for Kwan to bring with her to the medals podium.

Anyone who saw that ceremony on tape-delay now realizes why Lipinski, against odds and previously rigid age requirements, keeps winning these things.

She needs to be on the top step to be seen in the team photo.

How surprising was Lipinski’s victory?

Did you catch her face the instant she cruised her clinching triple loop-triple loop combination? All saucer-wide eyes and gaping, awestruck grin.

“I can’t believe it!” she yelped in the kiss-and-cry area, bouncing with joy as she sat next to her coach, Richard Callaghan.

“I was so good!”

Callaghan could scarcely believe it, either. More than an hour later, when asked by a reporter when Lipinski, four months shy of her sweet 16th, would now turn pro, Callaghan’s smiling face reddened as he shook his head.

“This is really a surprise for us,” Callaghan replied. “We haven’t even thought about that.”

Callaghan counted himself among millions of figure skating experts--certified, amateur and wannabe--who thought Lipinski would be fitted for silver after Friday’s skate.

“Did I consider her an underdog?” he said, repeating a writer’s question.

“Yes, I did. . . . But tonight, she just didn’t do anything wrong.”

Her victory, making Lipinski the youngest individual gold medalist in the history of the Winter Olympics, was a final jolt of adrenaline to Games already in the slumped-shoulders wind-down to the departure gate at Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

Nothing more was necessary, but the host city got one anyway Saturday morning. A 5.0 earthquake shook the area about 9:55 a.m., including the Alpine skiing venue in Shiga Kogen, where the men’s slalom event had just started.

For once, a meteorological incident was shrugged off and the race went on as scheduled, except for Alberto Tomba, who pulled out because of a back injury and watched from his living quarters as Hans-Petter Buraas of Norway won the gold medal.

Fifteen days down, one to go, and the Nagano Games now have been stamped with their seal of authenticity and relevancy.

Better late than never, as they say in Japan.