A Good Elvis Sighting Stojko’s Courageous Silver-Medal Performance Inspires 5-Year-Old Skater

His dream of Olympic gold unfulfilled wasn’t enough to make Elvis Stojko cry.

But a fax from a 5-year-old was.

Stojko, silver medalist in the men’s figure skating competition Saturday despite suffering from a groin injury, broke down Sunday when talking about a fax he received from a Canadian girl.

“She wrote that she was going into her first figure skating competition but she felt sick, and she was scared she wasn’t going to win,” Stojko said.

“She said she saw me skate and thought, ‘If Elvis can do it, I can do it too.’ “It kind of makes you think… that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

It sounded right out of Hollywood, but Stojko’s tears were real.

“And no, I’m not going for an Oscar right now,” he said, smiling.

Stojko said he was planning on getting some rest and preparing for the world championships in Minneapolis in March.

“I came here to do a job, and under the circumstances, I don’t think I could have done any more. I think I did pretty well just holding it together and getting a silver.”

Moseley comes home

Friends and family members swarmed outside Jonny Moseley’s home in Tiburon, Calif., to greet the Olympic moguls champion on his return from Japan.

Roughly 200 people held up banners and shouted accolades as the 22-year-old skier leaped from a limousine that escorted him home. Tiburon Mayor Harry Matthews presented him with a key to the San Francisco Bay area city.

Moseley used his signature helicopter jump to capture the gold in the men’s moguls last week. The win gave the United States its first medal of the Nagano Games.

“We all watched him grow up, and we saw him practice. Now we’re here to support our hometown boy,” said neighbor Susan Hoehler.

Flu makes rounds

A flu going around Nagano has struck the athletes’ Village, sickening about 200 people and forcing at least two athletes to pull out of the games.

The flu forced top German figure skater Tanja Szewczenko to withdraw Sunday from competition, after she was bedridden for five days with a high fever. It also prevented Norwegian speedskater Adne Sondral, gold medalist in the 1,500 meters, from skating in the 1,000.

No athletes on the U.S. team have been affected, but two coaches got the flu.

Through Thursday, the infirmary at the Olympic Village, where more than 3,000 athletes and officials are staying, had received 750 visits. Of those, 212 were for coldlike symptoms, and 61 people had a 99-degree fever or worse, doctors said.

A word from our sponsors

The U.S. Olympic Committee’s marketing chief would like to see a change in the way CBS is showing commercials during the Winter Olympics.

John Krimsky, the USOC’s deputy secretary general and managing director for business affairs, says the telecasts are overrun with commercials that interrupt the flow of sports events for viewers.

“We recognize that the commercial networks have a right and a need to recoup the amounts they pay to the International Olympic Committee for rights fees,” he said. “We just suggest that the networks perhaps should rethink the number of commercial breaks.”

Krimsky said the USOC’s Internet site has received more than 400 e-mails criticizing the amount of commercial time in the CBS Olympic shows.

Tara takes to the village

How relaxed is Tara Lipinski?

The 15-year-old world champion figure skater says her Olympic training sessions are going well and she’s having a ball in the athletes village.

Normally, she would have headed back to the village between practice sessions. But Sunday, with less than two hours until her second session, Lipinski pulled out a needle and continued sewing a pillow.

She has been among the most amiable of athletes since getting here and has been seen at the arena for nearly every competitive session, seated with other American athletes.

“I’m glad I did it,” Lipinski said. “I wouldn’t want to come to this like it was worlds, or stay in a hotel or not come to opening ceremonies.”

Lipinski will stay in her mother’s hotel room Tuesday and Thursday, the nights before her short program and free skate.