NBC Scores Big With Opening Ceremony

In an era of declining television ratings, NBC incredibly got a record 25.5 rating for its coverage of the opening ceremony Friday night. No Olympic opening ceremony, Summer or Winter, has gotten a rating that high.

The previous record was a 24.2 for CBS’ coverage of the opening ceremony for the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, back when the TV universe consisted of three networks.

The share for Friday night’s opening ceremony coverage was a 42 share, meaning that of the households where television was being watched, 42% were tuned into NBC. The rating pertains to all television households.

The 25.5 is 57% better than the 16.2 NBC got for the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Games at Sydney, Australia, and 49% better than the 17.1 CBS got for the opening ceremony of the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan.

Almost as incredible as NBC’s getting a record rating was the fact that three of the seven highest-rated markets are located in the Pacific time zone, where NBC’s coverage is delayed.

Salt Lake City generated the highest local market rating with a 65.5 and an 84 share, and Portland, Ore., was next with a 37.0/58. Seattle came in fifth with a 34.8/55, and Sacramento was seventh with a 32.2/50.

The Los Angeles numbers--25.8/40--beat the national averages.

New York drew a 30.3/45 and Chicago a 25.4/39.

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Picabo Street said it wasn’t a statement, but what else would you call it?

On her first downhill training run, two days before her final Olympic race, Street bolted from the 30th start position Saturday to scorch the Wildflower course and the competition with a leading time of 1 minute 42.16 seconds.

Yeah, it was a statement, for Street and her American teammates.

Caroline LaLive finished second in the training run, Jonna Mendes was fifth and Kirsten Clark eighth.

The women have another training run today to prepare for Monday’s downhill.

“I think you can bet on the Americans, I really do,” Street said. “Like I told you guys all week. You ask me who my biggest competition is. I’m going to reiterate. It’s coming right off my team. Straight up.”

Training runs are more often games of cat and mouse, with the favorites not wanting to tip their hands.

Clark, for example, might have won Saturday’s practice race had she not purposely stood up in her skis near the end, costing her time.

“I put on the brakes a bit, to have something in reserve,” Clark said. “For me, in the first training run, I don’t necessarily want to be sitting on top.”

Not the case for the 30-year-old Street, who obviously wanted to send a message to teammates and the rest of the world: she plans to go out skis blazing.

Street, trying to regain top form after devastating injuries suffered in a 1998 crash cost her two years on the race circuit, ranks only 15th in the World Cup downhill rankings and really hasn’t popped a good run since finishing fifth at Lake Louise, Canada, on Nov. 30.

She popped one Saturday.

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Bode Miller’s chance to win a medal in combined on Tuesday took a big turn forward when he turned in a very fast (for him) time of 1:41.72 in Saturday’s training run. Miller, who does not normally race downhill, finished only 1.42 seconds behind the training run leader, France’s Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin.

“All around, it was no complaints, it was great,” Miller said of his run.

This was a big improvement from Thursday’s first go, when Miller finished 3.21 seconds behind Austria’s Stephan Eberharter.

The combined event involves adding the times of a shortened downhill and two runs of slalom, all raced the same day.

Miller will be a gold-medal contender in the slalom and giant slalom.

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Although Russian figure skaters have won the last three men’s Olympic gold medals and the last four world championships, no member of the three-man U.S. delegation is prepared to concede.

Evgeny Plushenko, the reigning world champion, and Alexei Yagudin, who won the three previous titles, are favored to prevail in the men’s event, which begins Tuesday with the short program. However, U.S. champion Todd Eldredge, runner-up Tim Goebel and third-ranked Michael Weiss believe nothing is sure until the last quadruple toe loop is looped.

Goebel, who trains in El Segundo, said he’s not concerned with the Russians. “I just want to go and skate well and not really worry about what anybody else can or can’t do,” he said.

Frank Carroll, Goebel’s coach, disputed the perception that Russian skaters are superior to the U.S. men.

“The Russians run out of gas at the end of their programs,” Carroll said. “They’re not great marathon skaters. Personally, I’m not crazy about some of the stops and bumps and grinds [in their programs]. Often we’re faced with a panel of judges that has been trained in the Soviet system and maybe they look at it differently than if they’d been trained in the North American system.”

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Perhaps it’s psychology, but Eldredge said he’s not chasing a gold medal here.

“I don’t look at a medal anymore,” he said. “I just look at having a great experience. I haven’t had that, outside of the opening ceremony.... I don’t look at a medal here as defining my career or defining my life by any means.”

Weiss, however, said he is focused on winning the gold because to shoot any lower would give him an excuse if he doesn’t win.

Goebel said he has the lightest burden of the trio.

“I have no expectations. I’ve never medaled at worlds and I’ve never medaled at the Olympics,” he said. “I have no pressure here.”

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A dispute over a drug test by a member of the U.S. Olympic track team at the 2000 Sydney Games could be resolved this spring under a compromise that withholds the athlete’s identity.

Lamine Diack, president of track’s world federation, the IAAF, said the issue would be submitted to a ruling council meeting in April.

USA Track & Field can submit evidence it says supports its argument that rules in effect at the time of the 1999 test forbid it from identifying the athlete, who tested positive but was cleared on appeal.

Crowds at Olympic hockey games will not have their faces scanned to see if they match known terrorists or criminals.

The facial recognition surveillance system at the main Olympic hockey arena was scrapped because of concerns it wouldn’t work as advertised.

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The flag of Great Britain flew at half-staff in the Olympic village Saturday in tribute to Princess Margaret, who died late Friday. The flag will be lowered again Friday for her funeral.

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Times staff writers Larry Stewart, Chris Dufresne and Helene Elliott contributed to this report.