It was still early in Turin. Chad Hedrick had just opened up the 2006 Winter Olympics with the first gold medal for the United States. Everything was looking up.
A few days later, Hedrick was relaxing at the Nike House after a grand lunch prepared by hand. He was pleased with his victory and the custom kicks he had just designed for himself on a Nike Web site. Yes, everything was looking up.
The only downside–maybe–was dealing with all the swag.
“After a while, it gets old,” Hedrick said at Nike. “You always want what you can’t have, you know?”
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A week later, Hedrick would know how right he was, as would most of the rest of U.S. Olympic contingent. For a team that has won 23 medals (eight gold, nine silver, six bronze) through Friday–more than at any other Winter Games away from American soil–this U.S. team seems poised to be remembered as one that failed to meet lofty expectations.
From boom to bust
The buildup to the 20th Winter Games was mountainous. Downhill skier Bode Miller was on nearly every newsstand cover.
Hedrick’s sentimental triumph in the 5,000 meters on the first day of competition, a victory he dedicated to his grandmother on the anniversary of her death, kept the momentum going.
And then the skates–and the skis–fell off.
Miller finished fifth in the downhill the day after Hedrick won his gold, a prelude to Miller’s 0-for-4 Turin record going into his last event, the slalom, on Saturday.
Hedrick, who had hoped to medal in as many as five events, ended up taking home three–only one gold. He admittedly was disappointed.
The U.S. women’s hockey team, a virtual lock for at least a silver, settled for bronze. Their male counterparts were eliminated in the quarterfinals without even a sniff of the medal stand.
Sasha Cohen, poised to win the gold medal in women’s figure skating and take over the mantle of U.S. supremacy from departing queen Michelle Kwan, considered herself lucky to come out with the silver after falling on the first jump in her long program.
Daron Rahlves, the best American speed skier ever with 12 World Cup championships, bowed out with no medals, including a shocking 10th in the downhill.
So much for the ski team’s slogan: “Best in the World.”
The U.S. women’s curling team bombed after winning the silver medal in the world championships, going 2-7 at the Olympics.
And the women’s freestyle skiers did not feel much consolation with their bronze.
Hot heads, hot dog
Then there were the embarrassments off the ice and snow.
The Shani-vs.-Chad showdown that captivated the Games for more than a week bubbled up when Shani Davis wouldn’t skate in the team pursuit. But the feud revealed much deeper cracks in their relationship, as well as the further deterioration between Davis, his mother Cherie and the U.S. Skating Federation.
It was a fight that included accusations of racism–both implied and direct–toward almost everyone involved, media included, and ultimately stirred the debate over whether the attention was good for the sport.
They were not alone.
Three-time Olympian Mike Modano ripped his sport’s federation for dropping the puck.
“You’d think USA Hockey would be a well-oiled machine, but it’s not,” he said after Finland eliminated the United States in the quarterfinals. Modano’s team left Turin in tatters with a 1-4-1 record.
Lindsey Jacobellis celebrated too soon in snowboard cross and lost a sure gold in the process–a hot-dogging American, leaving a bad taste in the mouth of all involved.
“I do wish that there would be more Olympic spirit,” former speedskating champion Dan Jansen sighed, trying to be diplomatic.
Gold, sliver and bronze linings
Still, 23 medals don’t happen by magic. Shaun White headlined a strong U.S. snowboard team, which accounted for seven medals, three gold. The speedskaters, when not focused on team infighting, also were winning seven (again, three gold) on the long-track rink.
Joey Cheek provided a warm and fuzzy moment when the gold- and silver-medal winning speedskater announced he was donating all of his bonus money from the U.S. Olympic Committee–$40,000–to a charity benefiting children in disadvantaged areas of the world.
Hedrick, the leader among U.S. athletes with his gold, silver and bronze, is only the third U.S. Winter Olympian to win three medals in a single Games after speedskaters Sheila Young and Heiden.
Throughout the Games, Hedrick was resolute.
“I left Houston, left my friends and family, everything, completely changed my life to go to speedskating [from inline skating], so I’m here to win,” Hedrick said after he finished with a bronze to Davis’ silver in the 1,500. “Anything less than a win–second, fourth, eighth, 10th, 50th–it’s all the same thing to me.”
Wheaties anyone?
Is the American public interested in speedskaters who bicker and skiers who brag?
Despite winning one gold medal in five events, Hedrick is in prime position to capitalize, according to his agent. In addition to the usual run through the talk-show circuit–Leno, Letterman–Ty Klinic said his “phone is ringing” and that McDonald’s is “very interested.”
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As a champion inline skater, Hedrick said he was making $150,000 annually in earnings and equipment endorsements when he came to speedskating three years ago. He hopes to improve on that.
“Chad is the all-American boy, he’s a good-looking kid,” Klinic said. “A lot of times it’s not necessarily your accomplishment in athletics that makes a lot of money in endorsements. Look at Anna Kournikova (the tennis player with millions of dollars worth of endorsements despite never having won a pro tournament singles title).”
Davis, who went home with gold and silver medals, appeared on Jay Leno on Thursday night from Turin, and also was on with Jim Lampley and another late-night Olympic show on MSNBC. This comes after Davis received criticism for a sullen and largely non-responsive postrace interview with an NBC reporter following his gold-medal victory.
While Davis’ agent would not discuss any pending endorsement deals, Toon Gerbrands, director of speedskating teams for the Dutch bank DSB (a major sponsor of sports in the Netherlands), said he hopes to negotiate a new contract with Davis after the Olympics now that his old one has expired.
In his country, Gerbrands compares Davis to “a little bit like Michael Jordan, a very famous guy.” But more than famous, Gerbrands said, he is beloved.
“We have never had a problem with him or his mother,” he said. “On the contrary, we have always had a good relationship. Everybody in Holland is very positive about him. Shani has a Dutch attitude–quiet and try to do your best.”
Hedrick wanted to make a statement in Turin.
“This three-month window that everyone keeps talking about with the Olympics is something that is not going to happen with me,” he said of the perception that there is a finite period in which to strike. “I’m going to take this experience here at the Olympics to turn it into something bigger.”
That, of course, remains to be seen.
View from below
Prime-time viewership of the Winter Games through Wednesday had decreased 33 percent from Salt Lake City in 2002 and 19 percent from Nagano in ’98. And while experts blame the many choices viewers now have, the lack of a proven name (hello, Michelle Kwan) did not help.
In the mountain town of Sestriere on Saturday, Bode Miller, who earns an estimated $5 million per year in endorsements and was the subject of a huge pre-Olympic Nike ad campaign, had one more chance to medal in men’s slalom.
On Friday, American Julia Mancuso won the gold medal in the women’s giant slalom, an achievement considered too little, too late to a U.S. ski team that won only two golds (Ted Ligety’s in the men’s combined is the other).
For Rahlves, the disappointment of retiring from Olympic competition without a medal hit him hard.
“If you get a gold medal in the Olympics, it doesn’t matter what else you’ve done,” he admitted. “That’s one of those things. That’s how it is.”
Then again, he and the others might be well advised to listen to 20-year-old Turkish figure skater Tugba Karademir. She finished 21st in the final standings but after she skated a clean short program, a national telecast of a Turkish parliamentary session was pre-empted to show her long program live.
That Hedrick says anything less than a gold is like losing annoys Karademir.
“I just want to say to him, `You know what, just to be at the Olympics is a fortunate event for some people, so just don’t take it for granted,'” she said. “You have to be grateful to be here and not be spoiled.”
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