SubscribeHeadaches of Olympic proportions
Snow day. The office is closed, but I’m here for you guys, so…
Reading the Times this morning (well, website, actually. But that doesn’t make me a bad person) and came across a item you can pretty much expect to read on the occasion of every Olympics for the past 30 years or so.
“(Host city) concerned over debt left behind by Games”
The first time I recall reading something like this was regarding the Summer Games in Montreal in 1976. According to some of my friends who still live there, the city it still paying taxes for that. Now it’s Vancouver’s turn.
It goes beyond money. According the the “Vancouver Journal” item by Ian Austen,
The average guy, who cannot easily afford Olympics tickets (even attending the medals ceremonies costs $21, plus service charges), has had other reasons to complain. The flaming caldron that Mrs. Lombardi admired was initially hidden behind a chain link fence that evoked a medium-security prison. And until local spirits were dampened by the Canadian hockey team’s loss to the United States, a large section of downtown was overrun nightly by boisterous, hollering celebrants, an astonishing number of whom were drunk.
Of course, no one can control the weather (yet), so it was unfortunate that the women’s Grand Slalom had to take place under such awful conditions yesterday. See for yourself.
The problem in this one is the media.
The teaser on Comcast.net read “Vonn crash anger Mancuso,” (Lindsey and Julia, respectively). But when you click on the link, you find a different headline: “Vonn’s crash disrupts Mancuso’s GM title defense,” wholly different connotations.
Short recap: Lindsey crash and was tangled in the side netting. Because the weather was so bad and officials wanted to get the day’s run in, the intervals between skiers were shortened from one minutes, 15 seconds, to one minute. Mancuso came out of chute properly and was pretty far into her run when a yellow flag was raised, forcing her too stop. The teaser makes it seem like she was blaming her rival. Yes, she was; no, she wasn’t. Blah blah blah. Read and decide.
Mancuso finished in 18th place. It’s a shame when circumstances beyond an athlete’s control rear their ugly faces.
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