Organizers of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games spent $300 million to ensure peace within the competitive perimeter. By that measure, Salt Lake City has been a splendid success.
But no metal detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs or camouflage-clad soldiers could have prevented the skirmishes that broke out inside the barricades, a conflict waged with the modern weaponry of e-mail, affidavits and press conferences.
“I think Americans will remember these Olympics for the great performances of American athletes, which are numerous and legitimate,” said Olympic historian David Wallechinsky. “The rest of the world is going to remember these Games for their own athletes, as they always do, but also as the grumbly, complaining, protest Games. They will be the Games in which protesting was acceptable. Why? Because it worked.”
Leaving aside the boycotts of 1976, 1980 and 1984, Wallechinsky said, “I think these are the most contentious Games.”
Wallechinsky and many others view the International Olympic Committee’s decision to award a second gold medal to Canadian pairs skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier after a controversy involving a French judge as a first domino falling. The move pre-empted the established judicial procedures of the Court for Arbitration in Sport and may have encouraged the heap of disputes that followed.
The Russian Olympic Committee, whose own pairs skaters had to make room on the top step of the podium, threatened to pull out of the Games after voicing displeasure with officiating decisions, drug test results and judgment calls in several sports. The South Koreans hired a local law firm to advocate for a short-track speedskater they say was wrongly disqualified.
The Olympics may be viewed as a relatively harmless venue to act out national dramas because there is no live ammunition in play, except in the biathlon. But the IOC’s decision, ostensibly motivated by the fear that other athletes’ achievements would be overshadowed by the sniping, may have contributed to just that, as the bickering dominated Olympic coverage on many days.
“I thought these were great Games until the time when people started to play tit for tat,” said American filmmaker Bud Greenspan, whose Olympic documentaries are noted for their balance. “This is the Cold War starting over again in the Olympic arena.
“I think there’s a little sensitivity about Americans doing so well against their former enemies. `U-S-A, U-S-A’ has become a fact of life . . . but my feeling is that American fans have been marvelous. They’ve cheered for other athletes. The biggest problem in sports is the subjective situations where there is no finish line.”
As Didier Gailhaguet, the French skating federation president whose conflicting statements helped pour kerosene on the flames of l’affaire Sale-Pelletier, told the French media: “Culture influences the artistic score. That’s life. You would appreciate a piece of Japanese music in a different way than a Japanese person.”
And Russian officials will generally appreciate a Russian skater more than anyone else. In a handwritten protest to international skating authorities, they asserted that silver medalist Irina Slutskaya “was definitely the best” of the women’s figure skating field and asked for the new quid pro quo–another gold medal.
However, Bjorn Daehlie, the retired Norwegian cross-country skier who won 12 Olympic medals during his unparalleled career, said he did not think the atmosphere of the Games had been spoiled by feuding.
“The racers are concerned with their own form,” he said. “They don’t think about politics or federations.”
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Some developments are inevitable when the citizens of several dozen countries gather in one place in the name of anything. One is that a lot of folks will catch cold. Another is that certain items, such as commemorative food pins and fleece berets, will acquire disproportionate value. A third is that people will disagree on what is fair to the athletes who, for the better part of a month, become surrogates for entire cultures.
The Olympic Games also invariably reflect the tenor of the times and the personality of the host. It’s easy to forget now that the U.S. team itself was rent with litigious action before the Olympics. Speedskater Tommy O’Hare and bobsled pusher Jen Davidson pressed arbitration cases in attempts to gain spots on their squads. Both failed, but in the current U.S. culture of using the courtroom to assign blame, their efforts didn’t seem as outrageous as they might have 20 years ago.
Aside from basic security, the biggest potential source of tension heading into the Games was whether the emotional aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would promote jingoism that would make non-U.S. athletes feel uneasy or, conversely, put pressure on the home team.
The definitive comment on the subject may have come from U.S. skier and double silver medalist Bode Miller, who spoke plainly where many snow angels feared to tread.
“It was a terrible tragedy that can’t be rectified by someone winning a gold medal,” he said.
Reviews of the hot-button moment when the U.S. flag found in the World Trade Center rubble was carried into the Opening Ceremony by eight U.S. athletes were generally positive. The gesture was seen as dignified and leavened by the fact that the Olympic flag, generally borne by representatives from the host country, was conveyed by international luminaries.
Snowboarder Chris Klug, a member of the athletes’ color guard and winner of a bronze medal 19 months after surviving a liver transplant, said conversations with his competitors led him to believe that Americans came off as “patriotic but not obnoxious.”
Athletes build up a certain immunity to the diplomatic maneuvering that goes on above their heads, said Klug, who stuck around after his event to watch curling and hockey.
“That’s not the Olympics I’m experiencing,” he said. “Everyone here is overwhelmed at what a successful Olympics this has been. When I think about all the questions about security, and whether I felt good about participating . . . from an athlete’s perspective, every venue I’ve been at has been fantastic.”
As the allegations flew last week, athletes continued to compete and mingle in the Olympic Village without the rancor that filled the official conference rooms. The cease-fire extended even to short-track speedskating, subject of some of the most serious second-guessing.
Gregarious, goateed Apolo Anton Ohno got special protection after winning his gold medal courtesy of the disqualification of a South Korean skater. Korean fans made death threats and shut down the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Internet server with a barrage of e-mail taking issue with the decision.
But things were different on an individual level, said Ohno, who offered up a story about one of his rivals, Fabio Carta of Italy. Carta, accompanied by a translator, approached Ohno to explain a report that he had said Ohno should be shot.
“He said he was sorry, that he didn’t actually say that,” Ohno said. “I guess it was really an Italian saying that means, `He’s so strong, the only way to stop him is with a rifle.”‘
Greenspan said he is optimistic that the squabbles will not spill over to future Olympic competition and said the event has survived far worse.
“I think with the passage of time, this too will pass,” he said.
Wallechinsky, who predicts medal winners before every Games, said he wouldn’t dare try to do the same with headlines.
“Before the Games, I said the one thing I absolutely guarantee you is that we will be completely surprised by what turns out to be the big story of the Games,” he said. “You cannot anticipate anything in the Olympics.
“Except ice dancing.”