Pulling Off This Italian Job May Not Be Easy

The 2006 Winter Olympics open in two months, with construction projects still dotting this city, operational concerns abounding, hundreds of thousands of tickets still unsold and little buzz in the air, particularly in Italy, about the Games.

The Olympic flame arrived in Rome last week, heralding the onset of the Games. The Turin-based newspaper La Stampa put the news on page 43.

In Milan, Italy’s second-biggest city, a two-hour drive away from Olympic action in Turin, the coming of the Games was greeted with ennui among those in one of the city’s many piazzas.

“For me, the Olympics are the last things I’d think about,” said Miriam Bernasconi, 40, of Como, Italy. Luigi Scudieri, 33, of Milan, said of the Olympics, “It’s not particularly interesting.”

Even so, with memories still fresh of the worries that marked the run-up to the 2004 Athens Summer Games, which International Olympic Committee President Jacque Rogge ultimately termed an “unforgettable dream Games,” Turin officials expressed optimism that the 2006 Olympics might prove a success, even live up to their slogan: “Passion lives here.”

“I see some internal small problems and some decisions to be taken,” said Luciano Barra, chief operating officer of the Turin 2006 organizing committee. “But I don’t see major issues. All are possible to overcome.”

Italian officials confirmed Friday that a major dispute over the nation’s anti-doping laws had apparently been resolved. Italian law provides for the possibility of jail and criminal sanctions for doping violations; that had raised the specter of police raids in the Olympic village.

Mario Pescante, the government’s Olympic supervisor and an IOC member, said in an interview that he could not disclose details of the solution. But, he said, “there is total respect for Italian law.”

Meantime, in its final full-scale inspection, issued after a trip here in late November, the IOC expressed confidence, with Jean-Claude Killy, the 1968 Games ski champion, urging “one final effort” that would lead to “wonderfully successful Games.” But he also said that further delays or mistakes “would be a catastrophe.”

Just as in Athens in the weeks before the Games, construction crews remain at work.

Mayor Sergio Chiamparino acknowledged that several major non-Olympic public works projects will not be finished by Games time. Among them: a swimming pool under construction directly across the street from Olympic stadium.

The plan is to dress the sites up with colorful banners. Since the projects won’t be done by Feb. 10, the mayor said the idea is to flaunt it, to show the “image of a city in transformation.”

Most Olympic venues are built. An exception: an athletes’ village in the mountain village of Sestriere.

Turin 2006 officials showed Rogge around some of the new facilities on Friday, including the speedskating oval and the athletes’ village near the city center -- where, as is his routine, he will keep a room during the Games. During the visit to the village, an elevator with Rogge inside jammed for about 12 minutes.

At the secondary hockey arena, Torino Esposizioni -- known as Hockey 2 -- organizers replaced the ice-making equipment after it flunked a test event last month.

That setback is due to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Turin 2006 officials insist such concerns are minor. “With two months to go, it’s already OK,” Barra said.

Organizers have been keen to save money; estimates now project a shortfall of $46 million on an operating budget of $1.58 billion, according to Giuseppe Gattino, a Turin 2006 spokesman. In an illustration of money-saving Olympic recycling, the temporary stands inside Hockey 2 are the same stands used at the beach volleyball venue in Athens.

Perhaps the most pressing challenge is whether the Games will draw consistent crowds and, if so, how those thousands of people will get to events, particularly in the mountain venues, sure to be complicated further if the weather turns dicey.

Finals in some sports are nearly sold out, and tickets for curling -- in a 3,000-seat arena -- are 95% gone. At the same time, about 9,000 of the 33,000 tickets to the opening ceremony, traditionally a big draw, remain unsold.

Tickets to the opening ceremony sell for as much as 850 euros, about $1,005. “Too expensive,” said Alberto Vivian, 46, of Turin, “800 euros just for the first day.”

About three-fourths of the tickets sold have gone to non-Italians. The Turin 2006 committee is aiming to sell 82% of available tickets, to hit a revenue target of about $89.8 million. It has sold 560,000 of the roughly 1 million tickets available, Gattino said.

“Italians are not people who buy tickets three, four months before,” Barra said.

Transportation figures to be a test. A fan in Turin wishing to see the slalom races in Sestriere, for instance, must take a train or drive to a bus terminal in the mountains, at least an hour, then take a 55-minute shuttle up a winding road to the venue. Getting back down to the freeway or train station involves crawling down in another bus on a steep, seven-mile, switchback-laden stretch of road.

Paolo Balistreri, the committee’s transit boss, said the bus drivers will not all be locals. “We will have drivers who don’t know exactly the terrain,” he said, adding quickly, “We have some days to train them.” He also said, “We have asked [for] only drivers used to driving in the mountains.”

Rogge, freed from the elevator, said Friday night while watching a speed-skating World Cup event at the newly inaugurated oval that he remains optimistic.

“If the weather is fine and the transport fulfills the promises we have [from organizers], the rest,” he said, “should be OK.”

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Winter Olympics

A glance at the Winter Games in Turin, Italy:

* The 20th Olympic Winter Games will be held from Feb. 10-26.

* 2,550 athletes from all over the world will compete over 17 days for medals in 15 sports.

* Most events will take place within the city limits of Turin (in Italian: Torino); all of the Alpine events will be staged just outside the city at various winter resorts.

* The 2,550 athletes and 1,400 officials from 80 national Olympic committees will be housed in three Olympic villages in Turin, Bardonecchia and Sestriere.

* The eight competition sites are Bardonecchia, Pinerolo, Pragelato, Cesana-Pariol, Cesana-San Sicario, Sauze d’Oulx, Sestriere and Turin, together with two training centers at Torre Pellice and Claviere.

Source: www.torino2006.org