‘98 Olympics Already Getting Bad Reviews Japan’s Boss Of The Winter Games Isn’t Putting Out Any Positive Vibes
Casting a wary eye at the Nagano Winter Olympics, which will end one year from Saturday, the speaker somberly assessed:
“If it continues like this, I think the Nagano Games will not be successful.”
And the speaker was?
(a) The president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, inspecting the preparations firsthand.
(b) Billy Payne, thinking wishfully.
(c) An unnamed CBS Sports executive, contemplating the network’s $375 million investment in the 1998 Games, two falls on the ice last weekend by Michelle Kwan and no American male skier placing higher than 16th in the recent World Championships.
(d) An unnamed U.S. Olympic Committee official, handicapping Team USA’s gold-medal chances next February.
The words actually were delivered by Hironoshin Furuhashi, head of Japan’s Olympic organizing committee, but (c) and (d) wouldn’t be bad guesses, considering recent events on snow and ice.
Early reports from the 1998 Winter Olympic site have journalists running to the translation guide, just to make sure “Nagano” isn’t Japanese for “Atlanta.” The story line, at this point, sounds ominously familiar: hopeless traffic snarls, runaway price-gouging, insufficient lodging, unimpressive venues, broken promises, logistic migraines, an indifferent local population.
Already, Nagano officials are working hard to lessen expectations. After taking the torch from Lillehammer in 1994, the Japanese promised a “model” Olympics four years hence. Today, Makoto Kobayashi, director general of the Nagano Organizing Committee (NAOC), only guarantees a “simple, satisfactory Games.”
Problems include:
Bloated operational expenses, now estimated at $800 million, and counting, up from a projected $644 million.
Far-flung, difficult-to-reach venues. The downhill ski course is 30 mountainous miles from Nagano, the biathlon venue is 40 miles out of town.
Not enough seating at the ice hockey and figure skating arenas.
The downhill ski run is too short.
Not enough enthusiasm by the local residents.
And a widely chronicled scandal involving speedskaters and insects that eventually prompted a public apology from a vice president of the NAOC.
Yes, it’s different in Japan. Goro Yoshimura, governor and vice president chairman of the NAOC, recently made the mistake of dismissing speedskating as “uninteresting” - likening it to “water beetles on a whirligig.”
Japanese speedskaters and speedskating officials were disgraced. Virulent protest erupted and Yoshimura, displaying shrewd political skill, quelled the controversy by claiming to have watched nearly 40 more speedskating races and saying he had changed his mind.
The water beetle, Yoshimura proclaimed, is an “admirable” insect.
On the other side of the Pacific, pre-Olympic concerns are less seismic, but they are concerns, nonetheless.
If Nagano is having trouble getting ready for February ‘98, so too is the probable U.S. roster for those Winter Games.
Last week at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville, Tenn., two leading hopes for Olympic gold medals failed to retain their national titles and a third, reigning world champion Todd Eldredge, skated a conservative program to strategically hold off a more adventurous challenger, Michael Weiss, for first place.
Kwan, the current women’s world champion, fell twice - almost three times - in the first two minutes of her long program and relinquished her U.S. title to a pint-sized 14-year-old, Tara Lipinski.
Likewise, the two-time world bronze-medal pairs team of Jenni Meno and Todd Sand unraveled in the short program and watched longtime rivals Kyoka Ina and Jason Dungjen climb instead to the top of the victory podium.
At the same time in Sestriere, Italy, a Tommy Moe-less U.S. men’s Alpine ski team wiped out in the World Championships, placing no higher than 16th in any event. The U.S. women, also without injured MVP Picabo Street, managed one medal - Hilary Lindh’s stunning gold in the downhill.
That was the good news for the U.S. ski team.
The bad news: Lindh, 27, is contemplating retirement before the Nagano Games.
Is there a ‘98 gold medal in the house?
The United States upset Canada to win last year’s ice hockey World Cup, but the Canadians were without Mario Lemieux, Ray Bourque and Paul Kariya. Add them to a Dream Team lineup of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Eric Lindros, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Paul Coffey and Pierre Turgeon, and “O Canada” becomes the odds-on anthem of choice for the Nagano hockey medals ceremony.
Speedskating? Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen have retired. Of the 1994 Olympic holdovers, Christine Witty finished 23rd in Norway (women’s 1,000 meters), and K.C. Boutiette placed 39th (men’s 1,500 meters), which possibly provided the incentive for ‘94 short-track gold medalist Cathy Turner to come out of retirement at 34.
Bobsled? Brian Shimer and Robert Olesen led the American two-man and four-man sleds to bronze medals in last month’s World Championships, but Germany and Switzerland continue to dominate this event.
Biathlon? Not our sport. Wait for the triathlon in 2000 in Sydney.
Luge is another traditional American oil slick. The United States’ best finish in an Olympic luge competition? Fourth place, in doubles, by Mark Grimmette and Jon Edwards, in 1994.
Grimmette and Edwards no longer compete as a team.
In one-man luge, two Americans have placed as high as fifth, most recently in 1994 by Wendell Suckow. Last week on the Olympic luge track in Nagano, Suckow upset 1992 and 1994 gold medalist Georg Hackl of Germany to win the World Cup final, but that was a one-day race, requiring two runs. At the Olympics, it will be a demanding two-day, four-run endurance test.