Torino – 2006

It doesn’t get much better than 3 ½ weeks in the Italian Alps if you can get the assignment.  For the first time in 10 Olympics I was within walking distance (400 meters) of my venue and that made the experience just that much better.  The NBC Sports personnel were housed in newly completed (almost) resort villas and the food and atmosphere were fantastic.

Though the actual city of Torino reminds one of Detroit in the U.S., I was able to spend 90% of my time in the small hamlet of Pragelato, not far from the Swiss border in Northwest Italy.  The famed skiing area of Sestriere was just 15km (9 miles) up the road and we visited there whenever our schedules would allow it or we just needed to do laundry.

The vaunted Norwegian, X-country juggernaut came to Torino completely flat by comparison to several Olympics past.  Because there were so many non-Norwegian medalists, my interview opportunities were much fewer than they had been in Salt Lake City and there still appears to be no American story on the horizon in the sport.

The first week of competition we were all concerned that the organizing committee may have to start making snow as the venue was starting to look quite spotty.  Just as those fears were being voiced we endured 6 straight days of snowfall that took place at least 10 hours per 24 hour period.

Those weather conditions created some delays and a real scramble by the technicians in charge of the “waxing” portion of the sport to consult their voluminous data bases for formulas that had been successful in past competitions.  There’s no doubting that “waxing” errors were responsible for several lackluster performances amongst some of the sport’s favorites.

Though I originally dreaded being away from home for nearly a month to cover these Games, the time flew by quickly and I was able to keep up with everything that was happening in my main sport of track & field.