Slip Sliding Away

Former Olympic champion Oksana Baiul said her feet always told her when she was ready to skate. A glance at Sasha Cohen as she circled the ice before her long program Thursday and one sensed her feet might never say a word. She had "slammed" two jumps during warm-ups and now, as she struck her pose as the ill-fated lover Juliet, looked pale, skittish and reluctant. Perhaps prescient, too. Because just seconds later, Cohen fell on her first jump, then stumbled on her second and her gold medal was gone. "I was in a little bit of shock," Cohen said. She bravely pulled herself together and somehow resurrected the elegant skater who had started the evening in first place. Still, she left the ice too numb even to cry, convinced her dream of an Olympic medal was over.

But Olympic figure skating is a daunting business--"not like getting churros at Disneyland," Cohen said afterward. Other potential medalists stumbled, too, and gold-medal favorite Irina Slutskaya had a nightmarish turn of her own, a frenzied collection of misplaced jumps. Among the contenders, only Japan's Shizuka Arakawa skated steadily and prettily, even though her jumps fell short of her planned program. Arakawa's reward was Japan's first-ever figure-skating gold. After all the bobbles were counted, Cohen had even held on to the silver. "It was a nice surprise," she said.

Cohen's silver after her brilliant short program seems the perfect metaphor for an American performance that, despite many medals, was rife with frustration. Last week the U.S. hockey team left town having won only one out of six games. The U.S. freestyle-aerials team was shut out. Even the American speed-skating team, which boasted three multimedal winners, saw success tarnished by the ugly, public rift between Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis.

But if American disappointment has a poster boy, it's Bode Miller, who wound up with no medals in five events. He looked out of shape, appeared to party harder than he skied and responded by flipping off photographers. Even allowing for Miller's insistence that pride in performance, not medals, is his measure of a man, there was no pride evident in his sloppy, half-hearted runs. By way of contrast, unflappable shorttrack skater Apolo Anton Ohno--after a disastrous fall in his first event--pulled off a surprise win in the 500 meters, his weakest.

Most of the pleasure for American viewers last week came in smaller moments from lesser-known Olympians. Julia Mancuso, a 21-year-old California free spirit whose Italian heritage made her a fan favorite here, raced through fog and snow to win the Giant Slalom, the first U.S. victory in the event in 20 years. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto showed that a silver medal in figure skating can be more than a failure, winning America's first ice- dancing medal in 30 years. And even bronze can rock, as when U.S. men captured America's first-ever curling medal in a match against Great Britain that came down to the final stone.

Torino 2006 will likely be remembered as a lackluster Olympics where the promised passion just wasn't in evidence often enough. There were no breakout stars, American or otherwise, few moments that will be replayed by anyone other than the athletes' families. Still, why shouldn't our personal Olympic experience end on a high note? During last week's women's cross-country sprint relay, a Norwegian coach handed a ski pole to a Canadian skier whose own had broken; Canada went on to capture the silver, knocking Norway off the medal podium. Now that's truly a golden moment.

With Devin Gordon and Bret Begun

© 2006