A Smooth-as-Silver Start in Salt Lake

The host city of the 2002 Winter Olympics put a spectacular opening ceremony in its rearview mirror Saturday and shifted into the high gear of competition, with two American silver medals and a dramatic performance by an Italian cross-country skier.

On a clear, crisp day with temperatures in the mid-30s and none of the feared traffic snarls and security delays, American speedskater Derek Parra and skier Shannon Bahrke came close to taking gold medals before being overtaken late in their competitions.

Parra’s effort was perhaps the most impressive because it was the least expected and had perhaps the best story line. The speedskater, who grew up in San Bernardino, won the silver in the 5,000 meters but had the gold and a world record for about half an hour, before Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands, skating in the second-to-last group, outdid Parra by more than three seconds. Parra’s time of 6 minutes, 17.98 seconds had topped the world record of 6:18.72, but Uytdehaage obliterated that in 6:14.66. The German bronze medalist, Jens Boden, was more than seven seconds out of first.

Parra, 33, is 5 feet 4 and 140 pounds, and unusually stocky in a sport that favors taller competitors. His best race is not the 5,000 but the 1,500. Because he had little expectation of doing well in the 5,000, his wife, Tiffany, was home in Orlando, Fla., with the couple’s newborn daughter and planned to come to Salt Lake for his Feb. 19 race in the 1,500.

Parra had given up an inline skating career that brought him international stature but didn’t offer the opportunity to compete in the Olympics.

“An Olympic medal, that’s why I’m in speedskating,” Parra said recently. “It’s the only reason.”

U.S. Olympic Committee officials said Parra’s medal is the first for a Latino competing for the United States in a Winter Games.

Bahrke, a 22-year-old from Tahoe City, Calif., competing in her first Olympics, took the lead late in the women’s freestyle moguls and held it until Kari Traa of Norway turned in a score of 25.94, topping Bahrke’s 25.06. Competitors are judged on air time and artistic excellence in a series of jumps. Bahrke is a student at the University of Utah, majoring in pharmacy. Tae Satoya of Japan finished third for the bronze.

The first medal of the Games went to Italian Stefania Belmondo, who was competing in her fourth Olympics and won the 15-kilometer freestyle cross-country after breaking one of her poles and thinking she had no chance. A spectator offered his, but it was the wrong size for the 5-foot-3 Belmondo. With less than 4 kilometers left, she trailed Russian Larissa Lazutina by nearly nine seconds. But Belmondo’s trainer got her a new pole and she rallied to pass Lazutina and win by 1.8 seconds.

“When I lost my pole,” Belmondo said, “I thought for sure the race was over for me.”

She won a gold medal in Albertville in 1992, but took the medal to a ceremony in the Italian Alps a few months ago and it cracked. “I knew I had to get another one,” she said.

Two U.S. men did well in the Nordic combined event, setting up the possibility of some history today. U.S. men have never won a medal in the event, which features 90-meter ski jumping one day and a 15-kilometer cross-country ski race the next. Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo., was seventh Saturday after the jumping, and Bill Demong of Vermontville, N.Y., was eighth. Lodwick said he felt he could pass up at least three or four of the competitors in front of him. The highest finish by an American in the event was Rolf Monsen’s ninth in 1932.

Salt Lake City’s opening ceremony, which drew the largest TV audience for an Olympic opener with more than 72 million Americans tuning in to NBC (57% more viewers than the Summer Olympics ceremony in Sydney two years ago), was a hard act to follow. But the mild weather and smooth-running transportation system helped keep spirits high.

A bus driver from Alaska working for the Olympic committee said he had been here two weeks, driving a bus he brought from Alaska. He said traffic was running smoothly because the organizing committee had given each driver one route and had them driving it for two weeks, at all hours of the day and night, with empty buses. Another bus driver compared Salt Lake City favorably against Atlanta, which suffered a transportation nightmare when it hosted the 1996 Summer Games. There, the driver said, organizers just handed him a map and never said another word to him. Both drivers said the organizers asked them not to be quoted by name.

Security went smoothly in most places, especially the speedskating venue, where there was a sellout crowd of 5,000 for the afternoon session and the wait in security lines was never more than 15 minutes. One complaint came from Russian silver medalist Lazutina, who said that “nobody has ever thrashed my personal belongings the way they’ve done it this time. Each time we have to go through a checkpoint, it is a major put-down for the athletes.”

But the winner of the cross-country race, Belmondo, said, “They do their jobs. I understand. Good job, guys.”

Not receiving the same plaudits was NBC, which was criticized widely in Sydney for delaying its telecast so events could be packaged for dramatic airing. According to Associated Press, NBC ran a feature Saturday about mogul skier Hannah Hardaway, setting up the later prime-time telecast of her event, even though the event had ended an hour before and she had already finished fifth. Another NBC announcer told the viewers to tune in to a 3 p.m. telecast to “see the first medal of the Games decided,” even though that medal had been decided three hours earlier.

Much as in Los Angeles in 1984, local residents had been asked to use the buses and avoid driving, and all visitors were advised to avoid bringing backpacks and coolers to the venues. The effort seemed to be working. One spectator said she left everything at home because “I was told to.”

That same spirit of cooperation was evident at Utah Olympic Park, the venue for sledding and some ski jumping about 25 miles east of Salt Lake. Venue chief Richard Perelman of Los Angeles said a crowd of about 17,000 showed up Saturday morning for the ski jumping portion of the Nordic combined event. As part of a promotion, fans were told they could be taken by van one mile up the hill to the viewing area or they could walk up and receive a “gold medal mile” pin. Perelman said he had estimated that two-thirds of the people would opt for the van. Instead, two-thirds walked it, including a man on crutches.

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Times staff writers Julie Cart and J.A. Adande and Associated Press contributed to this report.