Torino so far: Less fluff, more stuff

Color me converted. After Friday's gaudy opening to the Winter Olympics, I really wasn't expecting much of NBC's Torino coverage. But I've been pleasantly surprised.

Here's the first draft of my review, appearing in Wednesday's paper:

For America’s best known Winter Olympic athletes, the highlight of these 2006 Games thusfar has probably been Friday night’s opening ceremonies. On that night, figure skater Michelle Kwan was still one of the 211 members of Team USA, albeit the one that NBC’s cameras seemed most in love with as she paraded around (stadium) with her red-and-white-clad teammates.

By Sunday, she had left Italy behind, and two of her most heavily marketed colleagues were also licking their wounds: skier Bode Miller, who finished a disappointing fifth in the men’s downhill, and short-track skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who didn’t even qualify for the final race in the men’s 1500 meter event. But as viewers discovered, not only does Team USA have a deep bench, so does Team USA’s broadcaster. For the first time, NBC has committed to airing events from all 15 winter disciplines, and thanks to some inspired announcing choices, it is putting some pep into these no-name Games.

While less renowned athletes like Joey Cheek, Zhang Dan and Frode Estil stepped up with stirring performances, NBC fanned out across western Italy, covering such events as women’s hockey and the men’s 30-kilometer pursuit with the same intensity that it covered the sturm and drang of Kwan’s training injury and subsequent withdrawal.

Especially if you have a high-definition TV set, these Games have been a pleasure to watch. Time Warner Cable customers had their pleasure doubled when the cable company began carrying Universal HD on channel 1400, with selections from NBC’s cable coverage simulcast in high-def.

The opening ceremonies were dazzling at any resolution. Every Olympic Games, the organizers can be counted on to deliver a certain mixture of Cirque du Soleil-styled pageantry and post-ironic camp, and Friday’s spectacle was no exception, though Torino’s was certainly a less somber affair than the one staged two years ago in Athens.

Unexpectedly powerful moments -- as when 100 exuberant dancers clad in red bodystockings formed a pulsing human heart -- were inevitably followed by comically surreal ones, like the sudden appearance of rollerbladers with fireworks shooting out of their cherry-red helmets. NBC’s Bob Costas took note of all of this from the announcer’s booth, where he and Brian Williams, the network’s lead news anchor, took turns reading from a cheat sheet that explained the ceremony’s more cryptic moments.

Williams was a late add to the program, taking the place of "Today" show host Katie Couric, apparently as the network’s way to punish Couric for entertaining offers from CBS to become the next "Evening News" anchor there. Having a newsman in the booth was a good choice, given the security worries surrounding these games (besides the sheer scope of the event, Italy is a close ally of the U.S. and has troops in Iraq). However, Williams’ sense of humor is almost identical to that of Costas, so it must have taken extraordinary professionalism and self-restraint for the two men not to spend the whole Parade of Nations making fun of the soundtrack. The relentless mix of 1970s and ’80s hits that accompanied the athletes’ procession sounded like it came straight off a K-Tel compilation.

As the night culminated with the lighting of the Olympic torch, however, the Torino organizers created a solid gold moment of their own. Eight women, including author Isabel Allende and actresses Sophia Loren and Susan Sarandon, carried out an enormous flag emblazoned with the Olympic logo. That was followed by the lighting of the Olympic torch, with a female Italian athlete, Stefania Belmondo, taking it the prestigious final leg. The symbolism was an unmistakable reminder that the Winter Games belong to Europe, a continent which has long supported women with professional basketball and soccer leagues and has elevated several to their countries' highest elected office.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the two American men in NBC’s booth missed this symbolism.

Then it was on to the competition. Anyone who gave up their weekend to watch as much of it as possible was rewarded time and again with tightly edited pretaped packages of events many of which are only seen here twice a decade. NBC has intentionally dialed down the amount of airtime given over to “up close and personal” profiles, recognizing that it could create better emotional connections on the field of play. Sunday’s 30-kilometer men’s pursuit -- where everyone switches to faster "skating" skis at midrace -- featured an unexpectedly dramatic start to bookend its thrilling finish. Norwegian Frode Estil, the gold medalist in this event four years ago, stumbled upon the shotgun start, then suffered further indignity as other skiers in the pack plowed into him, creating a pileup and damaging Estil’s equipment. He limped out of the stadium in 76th, or last place.

Then came one of those sportsmanly turns reminiscent of Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France. Knowing that Estil had crashed, two of his teammates forced their way to the front of the pack and slowed the race to a crawl. Estil quickly worked his way back into contention and then, remarkably, had enough energy at the end to finish second and claim the silver medal. The Nordic combined, another only-in-Europe hybrid of ski jumping and cross-country, featured a mad dash to the finish line that was won by a Russian, Eugeni Dementiev, who caught even NBC’s seasoned Olympic announcer Al Trautwig off guard. "I don’t think we said his name until a few moments ago," he mused on-air to his colleague, Paul Robbins.

The women’s hockey tournament features just eight teams, but four of them have been putting on a dazzling exhibition of skill and speed. Led by perennial powers from teams USA and Canada, the women had the arenas to them selves for three days, with the men not starting play until Tuesday. NBC, which is carrying every hockey match, has its ablest set of announcers covering any sport here. Bill Clement has been a fluid and amiable host, and has helped Cammi Granato, a newcomer to broadcasting after a storied career on the ice, overcome obvious nerves. But the real find is floor reporter Pierre McGuire, a much-traveled hockey scout who does a better job of conveying arcane hockey knowledge in plain English than anyone I’ve ever heard.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was Fred Roggin, the superfluous studio host of CNBC’s coverage of men’s and women’s curling. While curling, with its plodding action and endless counter-maneuvering, is aptly called “chess on ice,” Roggin’s contributions could best be called Chess on Ice for Dummies. In a typical bit, Roggin presented Roy Sinclair, the head of the World Curling Federation, with a large round loaf of bread that had a crescent roll protruding from its top to resemble a curling stone. Sinclair wasn’t immediately sure what to make of Roggin’s offer. "That’s kinda sexy lookin’," Sinclair said of the loaf.

While all Olympic stars are to some degree manufactured -- in this country, by NBC’s marketing machine -- some are carefully crafted in full view of the public, while others are relative unknowns until they grace the cover of Time holding their medals. Shaun White is one of the latter. The snowboarder and skateboarder has benefited from a huge last- minute PR push from NBC, which probably was looking for someone to counterbalance Miller, the loudmouthed and divisive skier.

White, as any Olympics viewer now knows, is the "flying tomato," a 19-year-old whose mop of unkempt, flaming red hair, great smile and love of a camera lens has made him a potential American megastar. All he had to do was win something in Torino. So as White struggled to qualify for the half-pipe snowboarding finals, NBC covered it nearly as intensively as Kwan’s will-she-or- won’t-she minidrama.

Speaking of Kwan, one of the big surprises of has been the show that was created to follow her exploits, “Olympic Ice” (airing 5 p.m. CT nightly on USA Network). Thanks to the chemistry between host Mary Carillo and 2002 gold medalist pairs skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, “Olympic Ice” is both an entertaining recap of the previous day’s competition and a helpful guide to the perplexed, like me, who don’t always appreciate the physical torment figure skaters go through to create their four minutes of ballet.

Comments

Chief, as an old figure skater, I'm glad you're watching Olympic Ice -- and I'm glad it's not just "The Michelle Kwan Show". It's simulcast on UHD, where it's even prettier.

And I'm VERY glad someone besides me saw Mr. Sinclair and the curling loaf!

Posted by: lurkertype | February 14, 2006 at 05:03 PM

Cammi Granato is no newcomer to broadcasting. Between winning gold in Nagano and coming out of retirement to play in Salt Lake City she spent a few years as a radio broadcaster for the NHL's Los Angeles Kings.

Posted by: Ed Dravecky III | February 15, 2006 at 09:24 PM