Ziggy in Slovakia’s Secret Service

Outside, the international media were growing surly, tired of waiting an hour in 20-degree weather to clear security at the moguls venue, fed up with having been shaken down by security guards at the E Center hockey arena.

Inside, Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney and International Olympic Committee Director Francois Carrard were patting each other on the back for a most excellent opening ceremony and a most excellent first day of competition.

Long lines, what long lines?

By sundown Saturday, the mob made it to the mountaintop. Romney and Carrard were easing toward the end of their joint news conference when an angry British reporter wanted to know what could be done to improve conditions at the E Center, where 25 writers trying to cover hockey were made to wait an hour while security guards asked to see credit cards, pulled caps off pens, confiscated packages of dangerous-looking chewing gum.

Nothing, replied Romney, who seemed rather pleased to deliver the bad news.

An Australian reporter wanted to know who planned the Salt Lake security program and why that plan hadn’t adequately factored in the amount of time it’s taking for guards to inspect photography equipment.

Romney suggested, more or less, that she take it up with the Secret Service and the U.S. National Guard.

So what’s stopping Ziggy Palffy, the Kings’ winger who landed on Salt Lake City ice a good 24 hours before the Kings figured he would?

Obviously, as we have seen, not a thing.

Ziggy zipped by security, zoomed into the E Center and played for Slovakia in a qualification game faster than the Kings had ever figured. Or wanted. Reluctantly, the Kings had granted Palffy permission to join his national team at the Olympics--provided he sat out Saturday’s game against Germany and made it back to Los Angeles for the Kings’ game Monday against Dallas before the NHL’s 12-day Olympic break.

But Ziggy played Saturday. This was news to King Coach Andy Murray, who learned of Palffy’s participation in Slovakia’s 3-0 loss to Germany only because of a phone call placed by a Times reporter.

Murray wasn’t happy. King General Manager Dave Taylor wasn’t happy. What’s going on over there, they demanded to know.

Slovakia was getting pounded and its coach was too desperate to keep a gentleman’s agreement, that’s what was going on.

Jan Filc, the Slovakia coach, was asked why he reneged on the deal.

“We thought that Ziggy’s ability to score would change the game [because] the game was going the wrong way,” Filc replied. “We let him play. The situation was very tough.

“Ziggy was released [to play] one game, and it was supposed to be [today, against Latvia]. But we thought there might be a case where we could change [the momentum] and use him in this game. This was the reason I asked Ziggy to stay on the bench with the team.”

In other words, Olympic Ideal students: When the going gets tough, deals are made to be broken.

Another lesson driven home fairly forcefully Saturday: At the Olympics, the home field/ice/hill advantage can be a bear.

The United States, which has never won a medal in Nordic combined, which has never placed a skier higher than ninth in Nordic combined, emerged from the ski-jump portion of the two-day event with two competitors, Todd Lodwick and Bill Demong, ranked seventh and eighth.

Derek Parra, a diminutive 1,500-meter speedskating specialist, entered Saturday’s 5,000-meter event to “get my feet wet” against the powerful Dutch--and briefly wound up holding a world record en route to a silver medal. Parra, who grew up in San Bernardino, became the first Mexican American to win a Winter Olympic medal by skating 6 minutes 17.98 seconds--a new record that stood for about 20 minutes, before Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands could complete his 5,000 meters in 6:14.66.

And Shannon Bahrke, her face splashed with glitter, accessorized with silver by finishing second to Norway’s Kari Traa in women’s moguls skiing.

That’s two U.S. medals on the first day of competition, a running leap toward the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Salt Lake City objective of 20.

Could there be a third today in the longtime American no-hope sport of Nordic combined?

Lodwick thinks there’s a chance.

“It’s like being down a couple touchdowns going into the fourth quarter, but you saw the Super Bowl,” Lodwick told the assembled Nordic combined beat writers. “The Rams came back and just barely got nipped.

“Anything is possible. Tomorrow is another day. It’s a great possibility for us [as a team] to produce the best results for U.S. Nordic combined.”

Anything is possible, true, provided you don’t leave enough time on the clock for the second-year quarterback to mount a winning field-goal drive against a prevent defense locked into backpedal mode. But then, any Nordic combined ski writer from Norway can tell you that.