Ugly Event Turns Into a Free Fall

Every skier knows that klutzy feeling--and the oafish-looking fall--that results from “catching an edge.”

Big-time skiers are no exception.

At Monday’s team ski jumping, Finland’s Matti Hautamaki landed a nice 125-meter jump, then cast a glance over his shoulder at the scoreboard as he skied through the outrun. At which point, he caught an edge, fell, then rolled over, skis in the air, trying to regain his balance.

Part of ski jumping involves style points for landing. Was Hautamaki in trouble that way?

“I just hoped it would not be judged as a fall,” he said.

Had it happened on his landing, it doubtless would have been. Because Hautamaki was beyond the landing area, however, no style points were subtracted and he and his teammates went on to earn the silver medal.

It’s OK to Cry

Speedskater Chris Witty, who came back from mononucleosis to win the gold medal in the women’s 1,500 meters Sunday, has a reputation for toughness. At 26, she is, after all, an Olympic veteran.

She made her Games debut at Lillehammer in 1994, then skated at Nagano in 1998, winning a silver medal in the 1,000 and a bronze in the 1,500.

She swapped her skates for a bike at Sydney in 2000 and finished fifth in the women’s 500-meter time trials.

So when she learned of her illness in mid-January she tried to approach the setback with professional detachment.

“I was relieved,” she said. “I knew something was wrong, and now, at least, I knew what it was and could try to work through it.”

Feeling sorry for herself was not in the equation, she added.

“I never let myself cry. ‘Don’t do that,’ I told myself. ‘That’s stupid.’”

But even tough athletes have emotions, and when Witty surprised herself by winning the 1,000, she was seen choking back tears.

“I cried a little bit on the ice,” she said. “Tears of joy.”

Shut Your Strap

The NHL players are generally in favor of the international rules used for Olympic hockey play.

They particularly like the absence of the red line that allows for longer passes, and the quicker faceoffs that speed up the pace of the game.

But members of Team USA were mocking the rule that players must keep their helmets on while on the ice after Brett Hull received an “illegal equipment” penalty in the first period Monday against Belarus. His helmet was knocked off, and he quickly picked it up and popped it on his head without fastening the chin strap. Hull was still sent to the penalty box for two minutes.

“I read the rule on the board before the game started,” said Hull, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings. “[It] said if your helmet goes off, either go straight to the bench or immediately try to put it back on. I put it back on. They didn’t say it had to look good.”

Added Philadelphia Flyer forward Jeremy Roenick: “I think that equipment rule is no good. Hully went out of his way to get the helmet and put it back on, but the chin strap was over his nose and it’s a penalty. I don’t see how that dictates the game whatsoever. I think that’s an idiotic rule. Whoever made up that rule is brain-dead.”

Roenick has another rule change he wants implemented.

“I think they should make the nets bigger,” he said. “Maybe soccer goal-sized would be great.”

‘What Are You, Blind?’

The pairs ice skating scandal has led the International Skating Union to propose a reform of figure skating judging. Steve Cohen, director of national teams for USA Baseball, the governing body of amateur baseball in the U.S., offered this suggestion: “You could easily correct the problem in figure skating if you allowed skating managers to approach judges like we allow baseball managers to do. Imagine Tom Lasorda scooting across the ice and getting in their face.”

Still Scrambling

Steve Young is even a triple threat at the Olympics.

Young, the former San Francisco 49er quarterback and a descendant of Mormon pioneer Brigham Young, was the first volunteer signed up to help with tasks big and small at the Winter Games.

So far, he has carried Britain’s team banner in the parade of athletes at the opening ceremony and helped warm up the crowd for pop group Train at the Olympic Medals Plaza.

Monday morning, the work was more mundane. Young was playing paperboy, toting a stack of newspapers through the lobby of the International Olympic Committee’s hotel.

Making the Cut

Mary Goodro worries that an Olympic athlete will raise a gold medal high overhead and come down with a bloody finger.

Goodro is one of 16 flower arrangers who de-thorn hundreds of yellow roses a day for the bouquets presented to Olympic medalists.

Despite wearing thick gloves, she gets her share of nicks, but she doesn’t mind.

“We’re sacrificing ourselves for the Olympians,” she said.

Nightly at the Olympic medals plaza, 25 yellow rosebuds, appropriately named “Golden Gate” roses, are presented to each medal-winning athlete.

The Paper Trail

Medalists from around the world were being heralded back home in different ways.

Newspapers in China saluted the country’s first Winter Olympics gold ever without saying much about the woman who won it, speedskater Yang Yang (A).

Italian Daniela Ceccarelli’s super-G victory was joyously celebrated around her country, where she was being compared to the great Alberto Tomba.

In Norway, a newspaper advertisement congratulating Alpine skier Kjetil Andre Aamodt for his second gold of the Games appeared to violate Olympic rules.

Aamodt’s ski and boot supplier paid for the ad, which had a picture of the skier kissing his skis, with the company’s logo and a note of thanks. Olympic rules generally prohibit sponsors printing photographs of athletes and citing their results during the Games.

“I reacted strongly when I heard about the ad,” Aamodt said. “I have had no contact with my equipment maker about such marketing, and it was completely unknown to me that the advertisement was going to be printed.”

No disciplinary action is likely.

In China, papers ran front-page photos of Yang holding a Chinese flag, but that was about all the notice she received.

Italy’s reaction to the triumph by Ceccarelli was considerably more personal. Premier Silvio Berlusconi phoned her and newspapers hailed the “city skier” from the Rome suburb of Rocca Priora.

He’s Not Sold

Jim Litke of the Associated Press doesn’t think much of the investigation into the figure skating scandal. He believes the truth will come out “just about the time pigs are doing triple axels.”

Also, Litke adds:

“Decisions have been made by the ISU and the International Olympic Committee on nothing more definitive than NBC’s incessant howling, hastily conducted public-opinion polls and a few fingers held up to the wind. If they thought throwing a medal behind them while running away from an angry mob would be enough, they know now it wasn’t.”

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Times staff writers J.A. Adande, Gary Klein and Mike Kupper and the Associated Press contributed to this report.