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Tougher Job
For Next Hosts
The tragic events of early yesterday morning (page 10) resonated deeply in Japan and Australia, hosts of the next two Olympic Games. Both have dealt with acts of terror in the past 16 months. In Japan, where the 1998 Winter Olympics will be held in Nagano, 12 people died and 5,500 others were left sickened on March 20, 1995, when members of a cult released poisonous gas in several Tokyo subway stations. And in Australia, where the 2000 Summer Games will take place in Sydney, a gunman killed 34 on April 28 in Tasmania. Whether or not these are isolated cases, security—the fundamental concern of every organizing committee since the 1972 Munich massacre—will be even more intently focused upon from now on. "The bombing has raised the spectre of violence in the nonvenue areas of an Olympics," says Mal Hemmerling, chief executive of Sydney's organizing committee. "We will go back and fully review our plans." Nagano's organizing committee, meanwhile, feels it is well-prepared, not only because Winter Games include fewer than one third the number of athletes in Atlanta but also because manpower and resources will be centralized under government control. "That gives us a public budget and huge manpower for security," says head spokesman Akira Hashimoto. "ACOG is a private organization that doesn't have the right personnel." Whether any personnel can prevent random acts like yesterday's is unclear, but the next two Olympic cities are certainly thinking about it. At a press conference yesterday, ACOG press chief Bob Brennan, eager to offer evidence that the Games were continuing apace despite the bombing, characterized morning reports from the venues as positive. "Scalpers were well-represented," he said. "Seventeen-dollar handball tickets were selling for $75."
At CNN Center, across Centennial Olympic Park from the site of the bombing, a collection of small paintings offers a sweetly eloquent answer to the dispiriting images washing across TV screens. The Visa Olympics of the Imagination exhibit features works by 11- to 13-year-olds from 22 countries. Some 31,000 children offered visions of an Olympic event of the future that would "promote world peace and unity." Thirty-one finalists, including Richard Shoji, 11, of Canada, who painted Bird Flying for Peace, spent a week in Atlanta. They departed yesterday to scatter across six continents, leaving a precious bit of themselves at the Games.
Outside Lucy Alvarez's Mambo Restaurante Cubano in the Virginia Highland section of Atlanta, a Cuban flag flies side by side with Old Glory. Inside, the sounds of Tito Puente and the plates of paella make any visiting Cuban feel right at home. And Alvarez is hoping to help make the States a permanent residence for some of the Cubans who come in for comida during the Games. The menu includes one special—a message stating, "Every citizen is responsible for the safety of a possible political refugee. If asked, you must isolate and help that person. Freedom is a right, not a privilege. Let the Games begin." A native Cuban who came to the U.S. with her parents in 1961, Alvarez, 49, decided to add the message to the menu after learning that three Cuban athletes had sought political asylum in the U.S. last month. "I'm not encouraging them to leave," says Alvarez, "but if something happens, I'd know what to do." No Cubans have yet approached Alvarez seeking asylum, but she held her breath last week when a man who looked Cuban came in to eat. When Alvarez offered him a copy of the menu, he smiled and opened his coat to reveal a menu already tucked away in his pocket. The man turned out to be an FBI agent of Cuban descent.
Since Evander Holyfield carried the torch into Olympic Stadium and Muhammad Ali lit the flame, NBC's prime-time viewers have scarcely glimpsed a boxer. The U.S. team has stumbled through the first week of the Games; four of the 12 American boxers have already been eliminated, and the team has spent much of its energy griping about the judging and officiating. But with bouts airing only late at night or during the day, few TV viewers have noticed. The joke going around Alexander Memorial Coliseum is that NBC stands for No Boxing Coverage. U.S. coach Al Mitchell, for one, isn't laughing. On Friday a petulant Mitchell suggested that the racial makeup of his team was behind No Boxing Coverage. "The team is made up of Hispanics and blacks," he said. "If we had one white kid who was outstanding, it would be a different ball game." Not so. Olympic boxing's low profile on TV has far less to do with race than it does with gender. Before the Games, NBC explained that because its heavily female audience was turned off by the sport—and because all viewers are weary of boxing's controversies—the network would air few bouts in prime time until the medal round. For now, Mitchell and his charges should worry less about getting on the air and more about getting into the finals.
Mia Hamm of the U.S. U.S. hopes for a gold in women's soccer were under wrap as of yesterday. Striker Mia Hamm (9, above), arguably the world's best player, was still iffy for today's late-afternoon semifinal showdown with World Cup champ Norway because of a sprained left ankle suffered against Sweden on Tuesday. "Mia's got incredible acceleration to the goal, which we're going to need," U.S. coach Tony DiCicco said after his Hamm-less team struggled to a 0-0 tie with China on Thursday. "And she's a great defender, creating more turnovers than most strikers. If we don't have her Sunday, we'll save her for the gold medal game." If Hamm can't play tonight, the whole team may be sitting that one out.
Adam Saathoff, the lone U.S. entrant in the 10-meter running-game target event, failed to make the final, shooting 550 in yesterday's preliminaries. But for Saathoff and the U.S. shooting program—especially for coach Sergey Luzov—the struggle goes on. Ten years ago Luzov, a native of Belarus, was living in Minsk with his pregnant wife and their young son when the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in neighboring Ukraine. "It turned our lives upside down," says Luzov, whose younger son, born three months after the meltdown, suffers from diabetes and a thyroid condition, both of which the family believes are related to Chernobyl. Luzov's 13-year-old son has developed progressive myopia. "All of Belarus was affected," says Luzov. Eventually his children's health forced Luzov, a Belarussian national coach, to leave his home country. He moved his family to Chicago in December 1994. Luzov, 37, has adapted well to his new home. After eight months of intensive study, he answers questions in near-flawless English. "He's a real cool guy," says Saathoff. "He listens to Led Zeppelin." On the shooting range Luzov has his work cut out for him. Many U.S. shooters quit the sport because USOC grants aren't enough to live on, according to Luzov. "We need to travel to Europe and compete with elite shooters," he says. "But that takes a lot of money." Still, the challenges of the sport seem surmountable. It's the irreparable damage caused by the world's worst nuclear disaster that pains Luzov the most. "I just wish my children were healthy," he says. |
Michelle
Smith
Ireland's triple gold medal swimmer, to President Clinton, upon realizing she had forgotten to bring an Irish team T-shirt to present as a gift: "That's O.K. I know your address."
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SI Olympic Dailies
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