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Angeles, March 14, 1998 Vol. 10, No.1 Dear Reader: CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a February 22, 1998, piece critical of the International Olympic Committee. One of CBS's star witnesses was Robert Helmick, a former IOC member and past president of the United States Olympic Committee, who charged that the Nagano Olympic bid committee had lavished gifts upon IOC members during the bid process. The "60 Minutes" story acknowledged that Helmick resigned his IOC post amid conflict of interest allegations, and then reported, without comment, Helmick's claim that he had been "totally exonerated" of all charges. Had "60 Minutes" bothered to check, they would have found a somewhat more complicated story regarding Helmick. But then, reporting the full truth about Helmick would have diminished his credibility. Here are the facts. Helmick resigned as USOC president in September 1991 shortly after the conflict of interest charges were aired publicly. He resigned from the IOC in December of the same year. Between these two resignations, the special counsel engaged by the USOC to investigate charges against Helmick issued his report. It stated, "Mr. Helmick repeatedly violated the conflict of interest provisions of the USOC By-Laws, as well as the Statement of Principles, by virtue of his paid representation of clients having business with the USOC and that he did so without adequate disclosure -- or in some cases without any disclosure." When asked by SportsLetter who had exonerated him, Helmick replied that sympathetic newspaper stories written after his resignations and the fact that the special counsel's report was "never accepted by the USOC" amounted to an exoneration. This explanation, however, overlooks the obvious point that Helmick had left the USOC before the critical report was issued. So while Helmick was never sanctioned by either the USOC or the IOC, Helmick's resignations made the matter of sanctions moot.
Czech mate . . . Those who were surprised to see the Czech Republic capture the Olympic men's ice hockey gold medal might not have done enough homework on the surprisingly strong squad. Sixteen Czech Olympic team members played on the squad that placed third at the 1997 World Ice Hockey Championships, and 12 played on the team that won the 1996 world title. To boot, neither of those teams included NHL superstars Dominik Hasek, the NHL's MVP in 1997 or NHL All-Star Jaromir Jagr. Thirteen members of the team currently play in the NHL.
SportsLetter noted, last June, that only 15 hockey players had won an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup. Add three more to the list. The Czech Republic's Jaromir Jagr, Vladimir Ruzicka and Petr Svoboda join the club. Going into the Games, only three Olympic ice hockey entrants had won both Olympic gold and the Stanley Cup: Peter Forsberg of Sweden, and Alexei Gusarov and Valeri Kamensky of Russia. Alexei Kovalev was slated to skate for Russia, but a knee injury just before the Games put him out of commission for the tourney.
A rose by any other name still has thorns . . . At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, NIKE, the Godzilla of sports advertising, was roundly criticized for its not-so-subtle ambush marketing that included a pavilion cum living advertisement situated next to Centennial Olympic Park and its obnoxious "You don't win silver. You lose gold" billboards. In Nagano, the swooshmeisters were a bit more restrained, but still managed to slither into the Olympic picture. This time around NIKE hid its media center in a nondescript former used-car dealership called Cartown. Located across the street from the Big Hat hockey venue, Cartown was devoid of any exterior swooshes in accordance with local ordinances restricting advertising by non-Olympic-sponsors during the Games. That didn't completely deter NIKE, however. A number of NIKE's Hummer all-terrain vehicles, festooned with 6-foot long swooshes on their sides, continually toured the streets of Nagano and could also be found parked sideways in front of Cartown.
We're not in Kansas anymore . . . Pot smoker or not, Canadian snowboard gold medalist Ross Rebagliati is riding high after returning home to Whistler, British Columbia. Upon his homecoming, Rebagliati was given the hero's welcome: a key to the city and a local park renamed after him. The Whistler resort bestowed a lifetime pass to all Intrawest ski resorts, commissioned a sculpture in Rebagliati's honor and will rename an expert run of Rebagliati's choosing in his name. A local journalist gave the gold medalist a gas mask.
At Nagano, Norway's cross country skier Bjorn Dahlie became the most decorated Winter Olympian in history. He won three gold medals and one silver, giving him a career-total 12 Olympic medals. Unfortunately, neither CBS nor TNT managed to pronounce his name correctly, even once. Announcers from both networks insisted on calling him "Dailey." Actually, it's pronounced more like "Dahl-lee." CBS research was aware of the correct pronunciation, but elected to use the more Americanized "Dailey." Why? Because CBS had used the incorrect pronunciation in 1992 and 1994, and they wanted to be consistent. Honest.
CBS wasn't the only network to experience Nagano ratings problems. European TV Sports, a newsletter published by Kagan World Media, Ltd., reports that the BBC experienced dramatic drops in viewership compared to the 1994 Lillehammer Games. The time zone differences are blamed for the decline among British viewers. Prime time audiences for Nagano averaged 2 million a night. During the Lillehammer Games, according to ETVS, BBC1 drew a nightly average of 17.2 million viewers. Non-Olympic programming fared well during the Olympic Games. The English soap opera "Coronation Street" attracted 15.4 million viewers during its regularly scheduled broadcast, more than seven times as many people who watched any night of the Nagano Games. Add ratings . . . The European broadcaster, Eurosport, however, offered 24-hour-a-day coverage of the Games and raised its daily Olympic audience 14% over the 1994 numbers, to 24.1 million a day.
Is it a bird? A plane? . . . As part of the continuing move toward equal male-female participation in the Olympic Games, women might soon be flying through the skies as ski jumpers. Yoshiko Kasai, an 18-year-old student from Hokkaido, Japan became the first woman forejumper in an Olympic ski jump event. Kasai, not a competitor, was a test jumper for the normal hill event. Test jumpers are used to determine takeoff speeds and test wind conditions. Women already participate in ski jumping world championships and a U.S. women's national team exists.
Although Asia is in the depths of a currency crisis, Asian athletes in Nagano managed to take home a good share of precious metals (sic). Athletes from Asian countries won a total of 26 medals. That's 13% of all medals and a 44% increase over the 18 medals won by Asian athletes at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
Oh, mother Russia . . . Russian athletes collected the third largest number of medals behind athletes from Germany and Norway. It's the first time since the USSR joined the Winter Games in 1956 that Russia (or the former Soviet Union) has not finished first or second in the unofficial medal count. The athletes of Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and Japan had an especially good Games compared to their performances in Lillehammer. Austrians took home 17 medals after winning only 9 four years ago. The Finns, riding on the wings of Jani Soininen's gold and silver ski jumping medals and Mika Myllyla's three cross country medals, collected 12 medals, twice the number they won in 1994. The Dutch skated home with 11 medals, almost three times their Lillehammer total. Last, but not least, were the host Japanese who won 10 medals, the greatest Japanese total ever thanks also to the fantastic flying of its outstanding ski jumpers who won four medals including the team event.
England's Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards, who finished last in both ski jump events at the 1988 Calgary Games, has been regarded ever since as the model Olympic tourist - the less-than-Olympic-caliber athlete competing for a country without tradition in a particular sport. The Winter Games have been particularly beset by this practice in recent years. Nagano was no exception with an L.A. actor skiing for Puerto Rico in the slalom, hapless lugers, and bobsledders that couldn't even manage to fit four guys into the sled. We think it's time for some historical revision of Edwards' performances. In 1988 Edwards had best jumps of 55 and 71 meters on the normal and large hills. But even the best ski jumpers manage to flutter to meager distances on occasion. One of Nagano's heroes, Japan's erratic Masahiko Harada, winner of gold and bronze medals there, managed only 79 meters on his first attempt during the team event on the large hill, not much farther than the Eagle's 1988 flight. Better yet, at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, Harada's second jump on the normal hill registered 54.5 meters, actually shorter than Edwards' two jumps at Calgary. And last, although Edwards finished at the bottom in Calgary, he had some prestigious company. Germany's Dieter Thoma who finished 55th, just three places above Edwards at Calgary, won the bronze medal in the same event in Lillehammer and led Germany to the team silver this year in Nagano. Add Eddie "the Eagle" . . . Edwards gets our vote of admiration on a couple other counts. First, Edwards actually had the courage to fly off both the normal and large hills. Anyone who has stood atop a ski jump will tell you this is no mean feat. Second, Edwards trained himself, and at his own expense, for his shot at Olympic glory. Compare this to Kenya's plodding Olympic cross country skier Philip Boit who, along with his training partner Henry Bitok, was subsidized by NIKE to train for Nagano to the tune of $200,000.
All the work, no glory . . . Meet Snowple the "okojo" or Japanese weasel that was the mascot of the Nagano Winter Olympics Bidding Committee. As you must know by now, his success only got him replaced by the Snowlets, those four little sprites of winter that served as mascots for the Nagano Games.
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