SPORTS MEDIA; Caldron Is Ignited With Little

Hype
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Feb 9, 2002.

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ABSTRACT (ENGLISH)
Sports Media column praises selection of 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team--Miracle on Ice--to light
Olympic caldron, and restraint used by television commentators to tease audience by turning identity of selection
into guessing game; comments on other aspects of opening ceremony; photo (M)

FULL TEXT
Shocking news: NBC did not shamelessly tease viewers about who would light the Olympic caldron last night
during the opening ceremony of the Salt Lake Winter Games.
The first of just a few teases came at 9 p.m., the second at 10:50 p.m., the third at 10:52. Bob Costas and Katie
Couric, NBC's co-hosts, did not speculate about possible caldron lighters, displaying remarkable restraint. No
repetitious memories of Muhammad Ali playing the role in Atlanta in 1996 and Cathy Freeman in Sydney in 2000.
What was repeated was the ''live'' graphic, a reminder of all that was not live at the Sydney Summer Olympics, a
change that led Costas to say: ''Hold it! I've been waiting a year and a half to say, 'We're live and this is Australia,' ''
as the Australian team entered the stadium.
While the world awaited the caldron lighter to receive the Olympic torch, NBC showed President Bush -- from his
seat with the United States team -- being nudged into a conversation on the figure skater Sasha Cohen's cellphone.
A marvelous little moment.
Finally, at 11:30 p.m., the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team emerged to light the caldron. Choosing the
team was a warmhearted selection -- and its members seemed excited about being there -- but it lacked the shock
value of watching a trembling Ali.
But it energized Jim McKay, who is serving as a senior commentator on loan from ABC. He was in Lake Placid,
N.Y., for the Miracle on Ice. Seeing Mike Eruzione and the other players, McKay said, ''My first thought is Al
Michaels shouting, 'Eruzione scores, Eruzione scores,' when they beat the Soviet Union.''
NBC's first Winter Olympics since the 1972 Sapporo Games opened with a generous touch: a voice-over by McKay.
''The sweetly serene games of Sydney seem as distant now as a star in the night,'' he said. ''Games from once upon
a time, of stirring, often improbable triumphs, lifted out of fairy tales.''
Only after McKay's words -- over images of athletes, police officers and firefighters -- did the narrative load shift to
Costas, NBC's prime-time Olympic host for the fourth time.
As usual, the time before the opening ceremony was a mixed bag, leadened by long commercial breaks. Whereas
CBS seemed lost in the hour before the start of the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, NBC showed a more certain
hand. Interviews with star athletes such as Apolo Anton Ohno and Michelle Kwan were not revealing. The dramatic
entrance of the tattered American flag from the World Trade Center was accompanied by one sound: a helicopter
hovering above.
Bush's chat with Costas uncovered his outstanding Olympic memory: fellow Texan Bobby Morrow winning the 100-
meter sprint at the 1956 Summer Games.
You weren't expecting the president to nominate Eddie the Eagle, were you?
The first segment of the ceremony's artistic show ranged from the odd to the goofy; whatever resonance it had

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could not be captured on television. Commentary by broadcasters as talented as Costas and Couric invariably
sounds stilted or weird as they ad lib between describing the intentions of the show's creators.
''It's never good when you're being chased by giant icicles,'' Costas said, as skaters dressed in what looked like
conical body condoms or see-through Ku Klux Klan outfits chased a little boy fighting fierce storms to reach the
friendly fire (portrayed by an Olympian from Slovakia with Carrot Top's hair).
''Things not going well for the child of light,'' Costas said.
It may be useful not to judge these ceremonies as stage shows. They are designed to reflect the spirit of the host
city, or country. If you compare Utah to Australia, the former suffers.
Last night, the second leg of the opening ceremony brought together American Indians from the five major Utah
tribes in a gesture of reconciliation. In Sydney's wilder, more humorous, more interesting ceremony, Aborigines
played a major role. The show also depicted the perils faced by migrants to Utah, which could not match the
ambition of a similar part of the Sydney ceremony.
''There's nothing I enjoy more than a bunch of skating coyotes,'' Costas said, shortly before a 70-foot-long
rattlesnake puppet rolled out. While Costas frequently adopted a tongue-in-cheek tone, McKay seemed to lose
himself in the type of spectacle he once presided over as ABC's prime-time Olympic host.
As a giant bison puppet skated onto the stadium ice, McKay cautioned viewers not to mistake the bison for the
buffalo. ''Isn't it gorgeous?'' he exclaimed. ''Look at the little ones inside.''
The parade of nations is the raison d'être of the opening ceremony, and the Costas-Couric commentary ranged
from innocuous remarks about the Mongolian team's conservative outfits to Iran being one of the members of the
''axis of evil'' named by Bush in his State of the Union speech.
Costas noted that the two other members of that axis, Iraq and North Korea, are not competing in these Games.
The most interesting moments of the parade were reaction shots of soldiers in Kandahar, Afghanistan, particularly
the Norwegian troops who cheered the entrance of their countrymen into Rice-Eccles Stadium.

DETAILS

Subject: Olympic games; Rites &ceremonies; Advertising campaigns

Business indexing term: Subject: Advertising campaigns

Location: North Korea; United States--US; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--USSR; Iraq;
Afghanistan; Iran; Australia; Slovakia; Utah; Atlanta Georgia

People: Couric, Katie; Carrot Top (comedian); Eruzione, Mike; Cohen, Sasha; Freeman, Cathy;
Costas, R obert Q; Bush, George W; Kwan, Michelle; Ohno, Apolo; Ali, Muhammad
(1942-2016)

Company / organization: Name: Ku Klux Klan; NAICS: 813940; Name: World Trade Center-New York City NY;
NAICS: 813910

Identifier / keyword: Salt Lake City (Utah); Hockey, Ice; Television; Winter Games (Olympics); Olympic
Games (1980); Olympic Games; Olympic Games (2002)

Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York

Publication year: 2002

Publication date: Feb 9, 2002

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 Section: sports

Publisher: New York Times Company

Place of publication: New York

Country of publication: United States, New York

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States

Source type: Blog, Podca st, or Website

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 2231174458

Document URL: http://argo.library.okstate.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-

podcasts-websites/sports-media-caldron-is-ignited-with-little-
hype/docview/2231174458/se-2?accountid=4117

Copyright: Copyright 2019 The New York Times Company

Last updated: 2021-10-21

Database: New York Times

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