Closing comments on the Olympics ...

With the 20th Winter Olympics now in the books, I have some thoughts about the Olympics in terms of what I experienced or think. To muse ...

Start with the Closing Ceremony. As I mentioned in the earlier post from today, the Carnivale atmosphere is truly great, weird, funny and messy. If you don't like confetti, oranges, candy, wearing red, stepping in horse crap, then my friend, find another place besides Italy to visit at the end of February.

The Closing Ceremony was a lot of things, but despite several proud moments (the cross country gold going to an Italian was a great ending), snowboarders who float in the air, an emotional passing of the Olympic Flag from the Torino mayor who I hope still has my business card to the Vancouver mayor who has been wheelchair bound since age 19, one crazed fan screaming during a speech and a horribly LIP SYNCHING RICKY MARTIN!!??? I felt this
Closing ceremony could have done a bit better. Lose the reliance on American music. Please. I am an American in YOUR country. Give me more Italian music to experience, just like I've done with food, wine and chocolate. The Carnivale theme did that well, I just wanted the FULL experience.

I enjoyed the Opening Ceremony much more because, not only did I get my first look at all that Italy was, it helped me understand how important this Olympics was for a city looking to move forward and become something much, much more than known only as where FIAT exists.

Of the six Olympic events I saw, two men's hockey, one women's hockey, one speedskating, one luge and one curling, here's the rundown of the best and worst:

Best venue: Palasport Olimpico. New arena was very nicely done. I had great views for every hockey game. Clear seats and comfortable too.

Worst venue: I won't knock only Palasport Olimpico here, but I will rip on all of the venues I attended (except Cesana Pariol for luge) because one drawback for me was not being able to walk around the entire venue. Not Oval Lingotto for speedskating and not Pinerolo Palagacchio for curling. If you sat at one end of the arena, you were NOT allowed to go to the opposite side of the arena nor upstairs. It was a security thing, but when I saw the Canada-Germany game and I can't go downstairs to look to BUY merchandise from the event, that's a problem.

Best sport: I am a hockey guy all the way, but as I mentioned in a previous post, Curling was great to see. Speedskating was fun too, but 1500 meters is a bit of a long distance to take in as a fan. Luge was great to see, too, Adrian. Thanks for the suggestion and inspiration.

Worst sport: Again, I love hockey, but aside from a few things here and there, women's hockey didn't give me the same pace as the men's game. I will say that Katie King is a great player and she has some talented teammates, but the game just moved too slow for me at times.

Best food at an event: Since I refuse to drink Budweiser here or anywhere on this planet, I'd have to say the potato chip-esque snack food Cipster. It looks like the cereal Sugar Pops, but it is a potato chip and it is open faced. For 2 Euros you get the whole box.

Worst food: Having a ham and cheese sandwich at Oval Lingotto for speedskating. The bread was too dry and the ham was so rubbery that I didn't finish half of it. 3.50 Euro gone to waste.

Best fans: Dutch speedskating fans. Hands down.

Best blog fans: Jerre, Barbra, Aaron and Mary Ann. I have some honorable mentions too but ...

Worst blog fans: If you haven't sent me a comment yet, you know who you are! Get in the act, people! It's fun! I really enjoy the feedback!

Worst fans: At the Olympics, there's really no such thing as bad fans. Everyone wants their country to win, but fans also want to root for performers to do well. If I had to say something specific, it would be three Norway speedskating fans who always wanted to wave their oversized flag at just the time I wanted to take a photo.

Best athlete(s): Getting to see an All-Star hockey lineup isn't your everyday thing. So, when I saw Canada's men's hockey team play Germany, I got to write down a lineup that any NHL coach would drool at the prospect of doing: Joe Sakic, Jarome Iginla and Todd Bertuzzi up front, Chris Pronger and Rob Blake on defense. I would have preferred Martin Brodeur in the net, but I've always liked Roberto Luongo (even if he's had trouble with the NHL's rules on limitations for goalie equipment).

Worst athlete(s): Again, this shouldn't be happening at an Olympics, but if pressed to make a decision, I'll go with Russia's hockey team. They are too talented and too smart to get this frustrated. Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk should not be getting misconduct penalties. Darius Kasparitis, however, should have been given an Olympics misconduct after that sucker punch he put on Saku Koivu of Finland the night before late in a 4-0 Finland victory in the semifinals against Russia.

Best performance: Enrico Fabris, Italian men's speedskater. He made the 1,500 meters his event by toppling the "feuding" Americans Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick, reducing those two to silver and bronze, respectively, and for Fabris, a 24-year-old whose regular job is as an Italian policeman, he became the Olympics star in his home country.

Worst performance: American speedskater Derek Parra was pleasure to deal with in writing two stories, one for the Press-Enterprise newspaper in California and the other for Mas, a weekly English-Spanish publication in Bakersfield. Seeing him compete in the men's 1,500 meters, however, wasn't a thing of beauty. He told me before the Olympics that this ice and the high altitude would prevent world-record times. He was right. But he also didn't look like the 1,500-meter gold medal winner (and silver medalist in the 5,000 meters) from 2002 in these Olympics. His 19th place finish wasn't a highlight at all for me.

Best decision (by RTB): I bought women's hockey bronze medal, men's bronze medal curling and men's hockey bronze medal game tickets to see something and I got everything I wanted and more. I saw the U.S. women shockingly fall to the bronze hockey game (I thought U.S. and Canada was a gold-medal game lock), the men's curling ticket gave me the chance to the see the U.S. win its first Olympic medal in curling (men or women) and seeing the Czechs and Russians play would have been a tough ticket anywhere (even in the U.S. you hockey-bashing reporters out there!).

Worst decision (by RTB): Buying the luge ticket to sit rather than stand. I could have saved 15 Euro by choosing the latter.

Star-gazing: Sure, D.B. Sweeney is my one Hollywood run-in on my trip so far on the blog, but I also met Torino mayor Sergio Chiamparino (who had a lot of face time at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies), watched as two new friends from Sydney, Australia, Nigel and Ann, got to meet their TV star idols Shelly and Tom from "Get Away" a Sydney-based travel show, saw Al Roker as he waited to return from a commercial break on "Today" and on Saturday night, before the men's hockey bronze medal game, I was standing no more than 5-10 feet from where Canada's CBC News people interviewed Ben Heppner, the opera singer who sang the stirring version of "O Canada" during the Closing Ceremony last night.

Good winning percentage: I saw three events out of four where U.S. athletes had a chance at a medal and acheived it. Shani Davis (silver) and Chad Hedrick (bronze) medaled in speedskating, women's hockey and men's curling won bronze. The only loser was two-man luge where the team of Brian Martin and Mark Grimmette were considered medal contenders. They had won bronze and silver, in that order, in the 1998 and 2002 Games, respectively. Their shot at gold ended halfway down the brutal Cesana Pariol track with a wipeout on their first and only run. The other American team finished well out of the medal running.

My Italian good luck: Fabris won his individual speedskating gold medal, Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselrieder won bronze in the two-man luge.

A few shoutouts for my time in Torino: Of course, Giusi has been great and so have her wonderful friends who have made this trip as easy as possible as I explore new ground. Guido, the president of the Silvio fan club; Ita, Guido's wife, who'd love to talk to me in Italian, but has to put up with my poor Italian language skills; Luigi and Gianna for not only hosting a Sunday lunch with their family, but for also giving me a book on making the perfect cup of Italian coffee. It's written only in Italian so I have some homework; Casa Thuringen, the house band and Davide and Fillipo for showing me one hell of a good time. Next time, more German beer and less American music ... OK, I'll dance again to anything that band serves up because they rocked!!!! And last, and certainly not least, Daniel, the son of the mayor of Volpiano. Daniel provided me use of his apartment for 20 days in Torino. It was close to everything I needed it to be for the Olympics, the Media Center and food and beverages.

Ciao!