Just another Olympic addict
Every four years I join the throng of intrigued, curious and somewhat temporary fans of winter sports as the Olympic bandwagon makes another pit stop. In truth, I love watching the skiing World Cup events, the ski-jumping and bobsledding that usually pops up on Eurosport’s Winter Park each year – but it’s those five rings that seem to turn normal everyday people into insomniac experts on sports that have never had a toehold – let alone a foothold – in Ireland. As I'm writing it's 4am in the morning and I'm watching the opening ceremony from Salt Lake City. As these things go, they're delving heavily in-depth into the history of Utah, but I'll tell you what, it's strangely entertaining – and it’s where I’d like to be most at the moment. Okay, so it’s not the easiest place to get a drink, so they chuck naked journos out of hotels, heck – maybe the old sense of humour department could be permanently closed. I don’t care! I’d love to be in Utah right now, soaking up that rare old Olympic atmosphere. The fact that I’m not means yet more nights squinting through bleary eyes at live bobsledding, slalom skiing and even the biathlon. But hey, why not? You’re only young once!!!
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All hail Lord Skeleton!
I remember seeing the line-up for the Irish Winter Olympic team a few weeks before the start of the Games – one name and one event jumped out, Clifton Wrottesley in the skeleton. Who? What? People usually have to pay big money for a name like that – and what’s the skeleton? Sounds spooky… Now, we know all about him – a 33-year-old Lord (spookier) who’s been based in the UK for the past three decades, and the best exponent we’ve ever had of the world’s most suicidal sport. Obviously the luge wasn’t dangerous enough for some. Nope, they wanted to hurtle down the course faster. Oh, and head first please! I had resigned myself to following the man himself via the net, but joy of joys, the Beeb were covering it in all its live glory. There’s a strange excitement in watching Irish competitors in sports like this – mainly because in some sports, we’ve haven’t done much in years, and aren’t ever expected to do much. A brief spot in the top dozen would do for a brief thrill, and then it’s back to the main action. But lo, our man didn’t read the script. Bet most Irish people watching jumped from one expletive to another when watching Wrottesley start his first run of two solidly, then get up to fifth…. then fourth…. then third…. or maybe it was just me. No sooner had he crossed the line, than the calls started in every direction. “Are you watching BBC2?” “Did you see that!!!” “Who is he??” The Beeb’s second channel must have been enjoying record viewing figures in Ireland that afternoon or something – everyone I rang immediately after had watched it, including a journalist friend of mine who usually has at least 100 other channels to be watching, and just about everyone off a newsgroup I sometimes visit. Is Wednesday Compulsory BBC2-Watching Day or something? Whatever, the whole nation must have tuned in just after 6:00 for Clifton’s second run – the one with medals at the end. Same again sir, and you’ll become Ireland’s first Winter medallist ever. In truth, there was more competition to get a good seat in front of the TV at work come six than there has been in the Premiership the last few seasons. Having missed the start of his decisive run – describing his first effort to the nation got in the way – it was plain that it wasn’t quite a swift or as slick as his opening shot, especially as those huddled around the box were cursing a worse start than first time out. Recording the second-fastest time when there are still two rivals left is always a risky business, and so it came to pass again that an Irish athlete would miss out on glory by one place – it’s the true Irish result. Fourth may be a quantum leap away from what everyone was expecting any Irish person to achieve before the Games – but of course, satisfaction isn’t satisfying enough for most people. A split-second quicker, and it would have been a medal, which wouldn’t have been bad for a nation without a bob track – if you leave out the Greater Dublin sewer system and the slide at Perks – and would have guaranteed Lord Wrottesley an even bigger slice of Irish sporting history than he already has. Immediately, the great and the good were comparing this with the great Irish Olympic performances, alongside Sonia two years ago in Sydney, Ronnie Delaney in Melbourne and she-who-dare-not-be-named in Atlanta. Of course, we know what Clifton’s main contribution to society will be. Just as rugby clubs sprung up all over the place in the aftermath of the 1991 World Cup, and just as ice rinks because the place to visit following Torvill and Dean’s success in 1984, the world and his wife will now want to emulate Ireland’s newest sporting hero. That means sales of tea trays will rocket and casualty departments up and down the nation will become thronged with kids nursing injured necks and heads. Don’t do this at home, kids - unless you're a potential Olympian.
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Put the curlers on
Funny, anytime I was in college and the cleaners started doing their 5:15 sweep-up, I never showed much interest. That’ll be my cue to saunter off home to the digs, or off to the computer rooms then… Yet, turn it into a competitive sport and I’m hooked – and the same goes for the six million others who kept watching until past midnight to see the British women’s team clinching gold on the final stone against Switzerland, inspired by the unerring accuracy of skip Colin Hendry. The Scotland international’s got Blackburn into the Worthington Cup Final, and now he’s in Utah grabbing the UK’s first gold since Torvill and Dean pirouetted home in 1984. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more popular British victory in Ireland. Dozens of people I spoke to the following morning were full of praise and adulation. Was it due to the fact they were underdogs? On TV? Scottish? Whatever the attractive factors, Hendry-lookalike Rhona Martin and co have made not just themselves famous, but their sport also. Think about it – as many people stayed up to watch the curling final on BBC2 as tuned into last year’s FA Cup Final on ITV. Scary, eh? Even more frightening – it looks like an attractive sport to pick up. It’s the sort of pastime where you can go from absolute beginner to Olympian in two years, as happened to some of the competitors in Salt Lake City this fortnight. Being a spectator at the next Winter Games in Turin in 2006 would be an achievable target, but how’s about actually representing your country there? The fact that a National Ice Centre is on the way to Dublin within the next two years and that the Irish Curling Association will be relocating back here from its current adopted home of Scotland (!) could work wonders for those of us who will never be super-fit athletes, but who still wouldn’t mind putting on an Irish singlet. Anyway, I’m rubbish at darts, so I may as well try something new. It’s a very cerebral game, a bit like chess on ice. Except with heavy stones. And brooms. And a big red and blue target at the end. In fact, nothing like chess at all really.
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The Ice Queen who melted everyone’s hearts
Being 25, there is some comfort that despite being pretty rubbish at virtually every sport I’ve tried - bar pool - it’s still possible to be at the very top of your sport at what’s best described as an advanced age. It’s not unusual to be 40 years old and be decent at curling for example… John Lowe’s got no hair and at 56, doesn’t care, as he can still make the last four of major darts tournaments. And as for that 72-year-old bloke who won a Junior Hurling medal in Wexford lately, well… need I say more? However, if you’re involved in women’s ice skating and you haven’t claimed an Olympic gold at 21 – forget it. That’s pretty much Michelle Kwan’s fate – America’s golden girl now seems fated never to get her hands on that shiny yellow medal at an Olympic Games. Now ordinarily, you wouldn’t have given that position much more thought as only a small handful of people ever manage to reach the pinnacle of being an Olympic champion. But if you’re the person that over 200 million people have pinned their hopes on, then it becomes that bit poignant. Kwan, at the age of 17, lost out to fellow American Tara Lipinski in Nagano four years ago. Lipinski was 15, and seemed destined for bigger stardom than Kwan in the States, but it’s the latter who’s now earning $7m a year. Maybe the diminutive one’s face just didn’t fit. This time around, no Lipinski and it was home favourite Kwan taking on those darn Ruskies in front of an all-American crowd…. and yet again, it was the wrong American taking gold in the form of 16-year-old high school student Sarah Hughes. Her performance was immaculate and spot on, totally deserving of gold. Her reaction on learning of her triumph was even more tremendous – she didn’t seem to quite be able to believe it, but eventually it would sink in. Kwan didn’t even manage silver, slipping past the wonderfully named Irina Slutskaya of Russialand down into third. Hopefully, Hughes will use her schooling know-how to prevent herself being obstructed in the same way as Miss Lipinski appeared to be. Quite bizarre how success for All-American heroes usually leads to more success and riches, but if you don’t look right, or your name’s not perfect, or you defeated the favourite, it will never quite be the same. Still, I guess there’s one 16-year-old for whom the world is her oyster – for now.
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Fireworks to finish, but what an anti-climax
It was a rousing closing ceremony I guess, but considering the circumstances, it could never be uplifting. For me, the whole event was overshadowed by the first major drugs controversy of the Winter Olympics – and it would have to happen just a couple of hours before the event. The fortnight’s previous controversies were – appropriately enough for the home nation of Disney – all rather Mickey Mouse in comparison, and just basically a whole series of misunderstandings, misconceptions and essentially just a bunch of people not seeing eye-to-eye. Yes, Skategate got loads of headlines and will force a major shake-up of ice skating which perhaps has been long due. There’s no denying that the Russians and South Koreans had valid points when some of their top hopes fell foul of judges, allowing Americans to make dramatic gains – and yes, a certain number of officials in certain sports were unashamedly and disgracefully biased when it came to the home nation. As unseemly as those various incidents may have been, they were all dealt with swiftly, effectively, and most of the time satisfactorily – but they were simply cases of one person’s opinion being weighed up against another. Bad refereeing decisions can always be reversed, mainly because there is rarely any premeditation or malice, but the whole doping scandal at the end was tragic – mainly because the timing was awful. It cast a shadow over the massive shindig to close the Games, and though only a handful of athletes were involved, it would have been nice to leave the whole doping-in-sport scenario to one side for a few weeks. Sadly, there were those who just couldn’t resist, and surprise surprise, the events affected were the endurance ones – especially the biathlon and cross-country events. We hadn’t had a doping scandal at a Winter Games since 1988 – and another 14 years would have been nice thank you. Luckily, most events rely on skill – being doped up to the brains would have no benefit in curling – but the ones that rely on speed and strength have always been the ones which harbour the temptation. The timing was off too, because there weren’t any more events on the ice to renew people’s faith in pure sport. When Ben Johnson was nobbled in Seoul, it became a major story, but it didn’t leave such a sour aftertaste in the mouth because there was still a full week of action to keep everyone occupied. And it’s due to the late arrival of this Olympiad’s scandal that these Games ended disappointingly. The only thing for it is to wind the clock back a bit to remember the great moments of these past 17 days – an Irish bloke doing great things with a tea tray, a tremendous ice hockey competition, amazing speed skating world records, Janica Kostelic’s treble golden run in the skiing, Rhona and the girls keeping 6m people up after midnight to watch a bizarrely hypnotising sport… A spectacular fortnight, 17 days of glory – if only if had finished on a true high.
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