The Real Lowdown on Ski Jumping
Those photos and TV shots you see with ski jumpers flying miles high over land, with distant mountains and cities off in the distance, create an image of unimaginable danger and superhuman feats. Well, it isn’t quite like that.
Granted, ski jumping is a high-risk thing, but the truth is, once they hit the takeoff and stretch out for distance, they seldom go more than 12-15 feet off the ground. The real scary part is getting down the big run before they take off--remember the spectacular crash of the guy on “Wide World of Sports”?
Wednesday, during the 120-meter finals, the closest call occurred when a photographer, planted under a ledge directly below the takeoff, decided to shift from one side to the other as a skier took off, and the skier cleared the top of his head by four feet, at the most.
Another Opinion
Dave Barry in the Miami Herald: “If you’ve ever watched ski jumping on television, you’ve probably asked yourself: How do they do that? How is it possible?
“The answer is ‘computer graphics.’ The jumpers are actually suspended by cables about a foot off the ground in a studio in Los Angeles. Also, ‘Bob Costas’ is an elaborate puppet operated by four people.”
Born to Luge
Some luge trivia:
* Singles competitors get 30 seconds from the time the whistle blows in the start house to take off; doubles competitors get 45.
* The course is groomed constantly, with sweepers up and down its entire length, treating it like a golf green. The other day, somebody found a double-A battery on the track, causing great alarm. According to marshal Becky Bond, the next order that went out was for all sweepers to take all the pins off their jackets, for fear that one would fall off, get on the track and cause an accident.
All Bets Are Off
Any visions held by Nevada casino operators in West Wendover--a 90-minute drive due west of Salt Lake City--to capitalize on Olympic tourism seem to have vaporized.
“It’s been a disappointment,” said Michael Devine, whose family owns the Silver Smith and State Line casinos. “A few tourists are coming out here, but by and large, it seems that people aren’t looking for any distractions from the Olympics. If they’re not attending the events, they’re apparently staying home and watching them on TV.
“We expected them to be bored in Utah, with its liquor laws and restrictive atmosphere, but they seem to be enjoying the Olympics and aren’t looking for alternatives,” Devine said.
The two hotels have a combined total of 750 rooms. While most of the rooms are booked on weekends, as is typical, there are plenty of midweek vacancies, he said--even with rates as low as $19.99 a night with two-for-one buffets.
“There are competitive demands for people’s time, and we’re suffering,” Devine said.
Land of Opportunity
Russian hockey leader Ekaterina Pachkevitch stands a towering 5 feet 11. She looks like the order-giving type. Maybe that’s why the Massachusetts Institute of Technology thought she would make a good coach for their women’s hockey teams.
She had never heard of MIT until the Russian national team used a campus ice rink to practice during the Boston stop on a tour of the United States. She made some friends there, came to Boston to coach the women’s club team for two years, then coached the varsity team for three years before taking a break to prepare for the Olympics.
She also met her future husband during a pickup hockey game in Boston. She was the one who asked him out. How could he say no to a 5-11 Russian woman holding a hockey stick?
Where’s the Fire?
Marc Norman is the ice man at the Utah Olympic Oval. So why does he carry a fire extinguisher?
“They have CO2 in them, which is a cold chemical that gives us a chance to freeze the damaged ice,” he said.
If a skater falls and damages the surface, Norman hauls out one of the two extinguishers he has. They are most useful for the 500 and 1,000 meters, where skaters are likely to tumble because of high speeds.
The Early Line
A feud is already brewing about which Norwegian city should bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Oslo officials believe they should get the games because a half-century has passed since the city was host. Lillehammer officials insist they deserve another chance because the 1994 Olympics in their small town went so well.
“It has been 50 years since Oslo arranged the Olympics and only eight years since the Lillehammer Olympics. I think Oslo is a much stronger candidate,” Mayor Per Ditlev-Simonsen told the newspaper Aftenposten.
Lillehammer Mayor Synnoeve Brenden Klemetrud told the newspaper Gudbrandsoelen Dagningen: “Oslo doesn’t have a good starting point for venues,” adding that the capital would have to use some of Lillehammer’s facilities even if it got the games.
A truce seems likely, since a joint Lillehammer-Oslo application is considered Norway’s best chance.
Grin and Bare It
A Canadian reporter got a chilly reception when he tried to dart out of his hotel room to grab a newspaper in the hallway.
He didn’t bother to dress first, and the door locked behind him.
Francois Gagnon, who works for the Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil, used the newspaper to cover himself and asked the hotel manager for help.
After letting him back in, hotel management asked him to check out.
“It was my fault. I didn’t have to lock myself out of the hotel,” Gagnon told the Ottawa Citizen. “I think they overreacted. That incident would have been solved in 35 seconds in Quebec. He would have laughed at me and opened the door.”
Gagnon said that he used sections of the newspaper to cover his front and back as he asked for a key to his room.
“I tried to make a little joke and said, ‘I’m lucky it was a broadsheet and not a tabloid,’ but they didn’t laugh,” Gagnon said.
Times staff writers J.A. Adande, Bill Dwyre, Mal Florence, Tom Gorman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.