Saturday, February 9, 2002
Hope and glory
By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
SALT LAKE CITY - It was a show to which many weren't so sure they wanted to go. It turned out to be the show of shows.
Not since I've been around has anybody opened an Olympic Winter Games like this. And maybe never has there been a Winter Olympics that needed to have such a glorious get-go.
It wasn't the same spectacle as Sarajevo, which was my favourite of the six opening ceremonies I've covered. It wasn't as energetic and joyous (or as long) as Calgary's in '88. It wasn't as artsy-fartsy as that bungy-jumping pretty f(r)ancy show we watched in Albertville. It wasn't the scene with the opening ceremonies at the bottom of the ski jump in Albertville, and it didn't supply the sumo show freeze-frames like Nagano.
But it was the best. The opening ceremonies for the 19th Olympic Winter Games put it all together like nobody has before and did it with a worried world watching inside and outside of the stadium.
Everything was in perfect proportion, including Sept. 11. This was about that. But not before it was about what we're all here to celebrate, the athletes and the sports of a winter Olympiad.
IT WAS WONDERFUL
From beginning to end, when the Miracle On Ice U.S.A. hockey team lit the Olympic cauldron, it was wonderful.
Sensationally staged with an octopus-like skating rink with three tentacles reaching to corners of the stadium, the ceremonies paid tribute to Sept. 11.
The world may have expected U.S. President George Bush to be enclosed in some bulletproof skybox for his duties, but he walked the walk to his position to wait the arrival of the tattered flag from the World Trade Center.
It was stunning. Absolute quiet. Only the security helicopters could be heard overhead.
The line through media security into the stadium was an hour and 10 minutes long, three hours before the ceremonies began when I entered Rice-Eccles Stadium. And it got longer. A lot longer. Spectators were urged to arrive three hours before show time. And that's a long wait in minus 4 degree Celsius weather.
But after Bush stood where he stood and the stunning silence greeted the arrival of the flag, all the fear seemed to be forgotten. It didn't take long before you didn't even hear the helicopters. And in only a matter of minutes it was, '`let the show and let the Games begin.''
What made the Salt Lake Olympic show so great was that they never forgot what it was about.
They made sure it was about athletes, about winter, about Salt Lake, about Utah, about the West, about America and about the world. Sounds so simple. If you watched it, now you know what an opportunity Edmonton missed to put on this short of show for the world to watch.
It had the pageantry of five indian nations of Utah. It had wagon trains and cowboy campfires and moose, beavers, bears, coyotes and mountain lions, the railway and the not-overplayed Mormon trek to create a nation here. It had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Canadian-born songwriter and singer Robbie Robertson, the Dixie Chicks, Sting, Yo-Yo Ma.
There was John Glenn, Lech Walesa, Desmond Tutu, Cathy Freeman, Jean-Claude Killy and Steven Spielberg bringing in the Olympic flag.
There was Edmonton Royal Glenora-trained world and Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi setting up the lighting of the Olympic cauldron as she skated before the torch appeared.
There was Dick Button and Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming and Scott Hamilton, Phil Mahre, Bill Johnson, Bonnie Blair and Dan Jensen, Picabo Street and Cammie Granato and Mike Eruzione taking turns before, to the surprise of nobody, the entire Miracle On Ice U.S. hockey team.
The Canadian team, which numbers 157 including 39 athletes from Alberta alone, received the second-largest ovation to only the host Americans.
When the Americans walked in, only the Canadians stood for them.
SPUR OF THE MOMENT
"It wasn't anything we planned,'' said skier Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C. "It was spur of the moment. We wanted to show we support them. It was a good way to unite everybody.''
Prominent in the group led by flag-bears Catriona Le May Doan were figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who chose to march even though they skate tonight.
The Canadians wore red leather-like jackets with red and white scarves. The outfits didn't compare to the cowboy costumes Canada wore for Calgary '88 or the RCMP-look in Lillehammer. But the Canadians still managed to be distinct enough in what was mostly a parade of parkas.
But this wasn't a night about Canada. This might have been more than a great moment in sport. This might have been a great moment in history.
2002 Games Columnists
