Opening Ceremony

With words like inspiring, evocotive, poetic, moving, rousing, creative and brilliant coming from the International Media after the XIX Winter Olympiad Opening Cerimony, we are off to the races, literally.

As promised I have a report to file but sadly no new photos. On Thursday, the Men held a full training session with 84 racers being sent out of the start house. As expected by many of those in the know, the Austrians held 7 of the top 15 times the first day. The veteran Stephan Ebreharter claiming the top spot with an amazing 1:39.07!

If the snow stays firm for Sunday look for that number to drop. The forecast for today (Saturday) and Sunday are clear and moderate with temps on Sunday reaching just above freezing by mid-day.

This could change the way the athletes and their technical staff prepare for the race. To train on hard ice then race on a softer surface could favor the only American in the top 10. Darrin Rahlves having grown up racing in California, has a distinct advantage when it comes to the softer conditions. If his technical team picks the right length/wax combination, he has a very good chance for some jewelery.

As for the Women they had a dissapointing day on Friday, when their first training run was cancelled due to high winds and poor visibility. They will train today and looking out my window, I can see to peak of the mountain they will be racing on the other side of (Mt Ogden). They should have almost perfect racing conditions today.

We were all so very glad that the Opening Ceremony went off so well. And quite relieved that it was an International Celebration rather than some glorified, American soda pop, TV commercial. I will be out and about this weekend collecting more photos and hopefully some impromt interviews of some of the Athletes.

Black Tuesday, the day everyone is warning the travelling public to stay away from I-80, will be Tuesday the 18th due to three events. Women's freestyle aerials (Deer Valley), Mens and Women's Biathlon (Solder Hollow) and Womens Bobsleigh(Winter Sports Park) this will cause major traffic congestion between Salt Lake City to Park City all day long. East bound in the morning and West bound in the afternoon.

See you next week.

GO


Useful Links:
Salt Lake City 2002: Schedule of Events
Official Site

Laura Donaldson Interview (February 2001)
Chalet Girl Olympian (February 2001)
British Alpine Team (January 2001)
Soccer at Winter Olympics? (December 2001)
Security increase at Salt Lake City (November 2001)
Salt Lake games to go ahead (September 2001)
No booze at Olympics? (March 2001)

Report from George Ott - Natives Salt Lake City 2002 Special Correspondent

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