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Reflections on Winter Olympics XIX
By David R. Zukerman, NYC and Winsted
 | | Claudia Vecchio and Patrick J. Wille spent some time outdoors on February 21. |
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February 21 would have been the 67th wedding anniversary of my parents, Sol and Anna Zukerman. In the Northeast, the day could have been mistaken for the first day of spring, as indicated by this photo of a couple at lunchtime at Park Avenue and 47th Street in Manhattan—where, three weeks earlier, such free movement had been barred by security measures for the World Economics Forum.
But if it was springtime in the Northeast on February 21, winter still held sway in Utah, for the quadrennial gathering of world-class winter athletes in the expression of globalization known as the Winter Olympics. And that day will forever be known in Olympics lore for the gold medal in women's ice-skating, won by Sarah Hughes over Michelle Kwan. Ms. Hughes came from fourth place in the short program to defeat Ms. Kwan, who won the bronze medal; the silver medallist was Irina Slutskaya of the Russian Federation.
There were heavy security measures reported for the Salt Lake City Olympics. The intrusion of ugly reality at Salt Lake City on February 21 was limited to news from Pakistan that kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had been savagely murdered, perhaps weeks earlier, shortly after his abduction. It was, of course, at the Summer Olympics in 1972, in Munich, that terrorism invaded the competition—which continued after the murder of Israeli athletes by terrorists.
An echo of 1972 was heard in the voice of Jim McKay of ABC Sports, who had been invited by NBC to serve as commentator for the Salt Lake City Olympics. McKay covered the 1972 Olympics for ABC Sports and found himself reporting on terrorist violence in Munich, that September thirty years ago.
The opening ceremony at the Salt Lake City games included Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," from his Ninth Symphony. The first time I heard this inspiring melody was as a 9-year-old junior at Camp Wabigoon in Winsted in August 1949, as melody of a color war song of the White Spartans—with words including: "Forward go the Spartan white team, we will be victorious; ‘come back with your shields or on them’ goes our motto leading us."
So the music progressed from Beethoven to ‘Nsync during the course of this Winter Olympics. What better indication of the global power of music—power further indicated when, say, an American ice skater competes to the accompaniment of French and Russian composers, as did Sarah Hughes in winning her gold medal. Perhaps, in 2006, NBC will be so kind as to identify all the music, all the time, during the ice-skating competition.
And perhaps there will yet be the day when viewers will be given an overhead perspective of skiers and sledders racing down their mountain courses. Present coverage largely leaves us with speeding blurs and their running times in a corner of the picture.
Still, even if NBC offered mostly prime-time packages—with the ice-skating pairs controversy and the Sarah Hughes victory almost qualifying for made-for-TV movies—what at the opening ceremony seemed like two long weeks of competition passed quickly by the time of the closing ceremony on February 24.
NBC gave us memorable moments in winter sports: ski jumping, freestyle skiing, speed skating, short track skating. For me, Jim Shea, Jr., a third generation Olympian—and from West Hartford, I hear—stood out for his Jimmy Stewart-like demeanor after winning his skeleton sled gold medal, placing the value of friendship above victory.
And who could miss the references to training venues in Connecticut for some of the world class ice skaters? That is to say, who could miss the implication that in the world of ice-skating, Connecticut is a global power!
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