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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Harada Saves Face Japanese Skier Thrills Country With Record Jump That Decides Team Title

From Wire Reports

The shame of Lillehammer it had almost become Masahiko Harada’s nickname.

Failing to hit even a mediocre ski jump at the 1994 Olympics, a failure that cost his team the gold, was a moment that had defined Harada’s life for the past four years.

Now he was atop an Olympic ski jump again - this one at Japan’s first Winter Games in 26 years, in front of 50,000 noisy, expectant countrymen.

On his first leap, under awful conditions, he had taken his team from first to fourth place. As he set up for his second and final attempt, he looked down the windy slope through a light snow and knew what lay ahead was either redemption, or another moment of ruin.

“To be honest, I felt like it was Lillehammer all over again,” he said. “I just decided to do the best I could, to just fly as far as I could.”

To the resounding “Banzai!” cheers of Japanese fans, Harada was all gold, soaring 137 meters to tie the Olympic record set by teammate Takanobu Okabe just minutes before and virtually assuring Japan of the victory. It also was Japan’s 100th all-time Olympic gold medal.

Final jumper Kazuyoshi Funaki, winner of the individual gold on the large hill, jumped 125 meters to make it official.

“We did it! We did it!” Harada cried, embracing his teammates and breaking down into tears.

It was a cry heard round Japan.

Evening editions of all major newspapers had Harada headlined, front page. Japan’s state-run NHK television ran the jump live. Other networks flashed the news then broadcast specials in prime time.

Ozawa conducts tests, too

Seiji Ozawa has few equals when conducting an orchestra, as he showed at the start of the Nagano Games. Now, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s music director is about to return to the Olympic spotlight.

Ozawa will make a ceremonial test run prior to the men’s giant slalom, which was supposed to be held Tuesday but was pushed back 24 hours by bad weather.

“You know what an ice skating rink is like; right? Well, imagine that on a slope. It’s so slippery and frozen you can see the reflection of your face on it,” he said, bringing his hand before his face and tilting it sharply.

Ozawa, 62, produced a memorable moment during the opening ceremony, when he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony - simultaneously by satellite in choruses on five continents.

Snowboarder comes home

Ross Rebagliati’s hometown, Whistler, British Columbia, honored its hero, home from the Olympics and a high-profile marijuana ordeal.

TV cameras from Canada and the United States covered the bash at the posh resort north of Vancouver, where thousands jammed the village square to cheer their Olympic snowboarding hero.

Rebagliati won the first Olympic gold medal in snowboarding but almost lost it after testing positive for traces of marijuana, which he said were due to second-hand smoke.

Meanest-looking sled

As usual, many of the more than 30 bobsled teams competing in the Olympics sport some distinctive paint jobs. None is more distinctive than that of the Virgin Islands.

The four-man sled is painted a brilliant green and black, and looks like a giant lizard, eerie eyes and all on the front.

Driver Zachary Zoller said the sled is supposed to be an iguana.

“But everybody in Japan thinks it’s Godzilla,” he said. “It’s a meanlooking iguana, I guess.”