Wednesday, January 30, 2002
Assault Lake?
Patriots, local lunatics, a few reasons to steer clear of Games
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun
That giant gurgle you hear blowing up from south of the border is not the cream of American society flushing their Enron stock certificates down the toilet.
Nor is it Monica Lewinsky preparing for a job interview.
It's 1.5 million normally reserved citizens of Utah getting ready to chant USA! USA! USA! for 17 consecutive days.
That's the rumour anyway. Let's hope it's not true.
There are plenty of reasons to dread the trip down to Mormon country for the Olympic Games next month, particularly if you're a boozehound or a caffeine achiever, although we in the media tend to avoid such riffraff.
The main fear, of course, is some kind of terrorist attack.
Just yesterday it was reported in the New York Times that the U.S. Justice Department requested some last-minute changes to the security arrangements in Salt Lake after Attorney General John Ashcroft toured the area earlier this month. Ashcroft deemed that many of the plans and precautions weren't up to snuff and that he had uncovered a variety of "blind spots" in the security preparations.
Not particularly comforting, although many of us who attended the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta believe that there is more of a chance of an attack from one of the lunatic fringe groups within the U.S. than from the al-Qaida network. Put it this way. The Winter Olympics is an event that tends to attract people of, uh, European background. The World Cup alpine circuit is called the White Circus for a reason and the Winter Games has much the same atmosphere. Let's just say that followers of Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein wouldn't exactly blend in with the local populace. On the other hand, some angry, government-hating kook from the mountains of Montana would blend in fine.
Anyway, the other great worry of those travelling to Utah is the fear of overly enthusiastic Americans, which is a good thing if you're storming a beach or looking for an investor. But when it comes to sporting events held in the U.S., home crowds are a scary thing.
Americans tend to go just a bit overboard when it comes to supporting the local talent. It was bad in Los Angeles in 1984 and reached epic proportions in Atlanta.
Now throw in the fact that U.S. television is going to try to tie in every American triumph with Sept. 11 and you've got a sure-fire recipe for nausea. So much so that some more enlightened members of the American print media, including my friend Christine Brennan of USA Today, has called for the toning down of the anticipated patriotic fervour.
It will be up to the athletes of the world to drown out the overzealous cheering and concentrate on the job at hand, sort of like what Donovan Bailey did when he won the 100-metre sprint title for Canada in Atlanta.
"You shouldn't let distractions get to you," said Bailey, who actually felt that the chants of USA! added to the atmosphere of the Atlanta Games.
"If you're motivated and focused on what you're supposed to do, it shouldn't be a problem."
It shouldn't be a problem for veteran athletes, but out of common courtesy, it would be nice if, for once, the fans down south remembered that the Olympics is supposed to be about the world coming together, and not about one team.
FIVE-RING CIRCUS: How ridiculous is the calibre of women's hockey? China is supposed to be the third- or fourth-ranked team in the world. The American squad recently defeated its Far East foes 13-0 and Chinese goalie Guo Hong had to stand on her head to, uh, make it close.
The U.S. and Canada are the only decent teams in the world. Yet it's an Olympic event. Another victory for political correctness.
I AM IN CHARGE: It seems the Canadian Olympic Association made a pretty good decision in hiring former sports television executive Jim Thompson as its new CEO. The Toronto resident has a reputation as a hard worker, who doesn't suffer fools gladly. Still, it would have been nice if swim legend Alex Baumann was given the chance. The Sudbury native was named director of the world-renowned Queensland Academy of Sport in Australia this week. It seems he's good enough for sports-rich Oz, but not Canada ... Wait until the Quebec media find out that Thompson does not speak French ... In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the COA has developed an Emergency Response Preparedness Plan for its athletes, coaches and mission staff in Salt Lake. For obvious reasons, they won't reveal details of the plan, but an extra RCMP officer has been added to the security team. One of the priorities of the plan is to ensure that the athletes can be reached at very short notice during the Games in case of an emergency, such as an anthrax attack. The team has stocked up on the anthrax vaccine Cipro.
ROGGE PLAYER: New IOC prez Jacques Rogge said his priorities are to fight doping, cut the size and cost of the Games, and review the reforms enacted after the Olympic scandal. Montreal's Dick Pound, who lost the president's job to Rogge last summer, is the man in the IOC when it comes to all three. Pound heads the World Anti-Doping Agency, is chair of the IOC's Olympic Games Study Commission, and led the reform commission. So much for taking a back seat.
2002 Games Columnists
