Feel-Good Factor at Medal Plaza
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
International Herald Tribune
February 24, 2006
A cure for the Olympic blues could be found in Piazza Castello, as speed skater Enrico Fabris received his latest gold medal and thousands of his compatriots showed their approval by waving Italian flags and sounding like they were really, truly there to see him instead of the free Ricky Martin concert that was to follow.
I was feeling crotchety after staring at too many empty seats in the mountains; feeling resentful after watching fans have to pay too much to travel too far for too little entertainment when they could have stayed home and tuned into Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's television channels instead.
But even for a non-Italian, it was difficult to keep looking through a lens darkly when Fabris's angular features broke into the smile of his life as he got a panoramic view of all the good vibrations his surprise success here has generated.
Local heroes at the Winter Olympics are always welcome.
Think Johann Olav Koss at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer.
Think Kazuyoshi Funaki and Masahiko Harada at the 1998 Games in Nagano, or 16-year-old Sarah "Who? Me?" Hughes last time around in Salt Lake City.
But Norwegian speed skaters, Japanese ski jumpers and American figure skaters are not breaking any ice that has not been broken before in their nations. Fabris comes from a country where speed skating has no tradition of major success and very few practitioners. There are only about 80 elite skaters in Italy compared with about 14,000 in the Netherlands; only about 300 Italians who are affiliated with speed-skating clubs compared with close to 170,000 in that orange-souled place where the canals freeze over.
But Italy now has its first three medals in speed skating (two golds and one bronze): all courtesy of Fabris, who hails from Roana in northeastern Italy and looks rather like actor Adrian Brody, although he was sorely lacking in Brody's earning power upon arrival in the Olympic city.
Like many an Italian Olympian before him, he is officially part of the state police, and his annual stipend from the Italian government is €14,500, or $17,200. Now, his gold medal in the 1,500 meters, bronze in the 5,000 and gold in the team pursuit have given him enough bonuses to push his government earnings this year above €300,000.
That noted, it did not appear to be remotely about the money as he cavorted, wide-eyed, about the speed-skating oval after the 1,500 and then looked up, damp-eyed, from the medal stand on Wednesday night with his right hand over his never-more-Italian heart and his nation's flag rising with the Baroque statues and neo-Baroque video wall for a backdrop.
Sports and the Olympics still thrive on surprise (as long as the drug tests come up negative), but it's even more of a pleasure when you see an athlete surprise himself.
"This is the most beautiful medal for me so far," he said afterward with Friday's 10,000-meter race still to come. "Being alone on the podium gives you a stronger emotion than when you are with a team."
He was not entirely alone up there, and at first it seemed quite a good idea that he was standing between American silver medalist Shani Davis and American bronze medalist Chad Hedrick, the reluctant teammates who have been sniping at each other in Turin.
But the healing powers of the medal plaza apparently extend beyond bloodshot-eyed sports writers. Hedrick made an end-run around Fabris to shake Davis's hand, and by the time they walked to the front of the stage with their medals shimmering around their necks, there were smiles all around.
So it had gone, more predictably, for the women's bobsledders in the ceremony that preceded the speed skaters. So it went next for the men's snowboarders: two of whom - gold medalist Philipp Schoch and silver medalist Simon Schoch - have no need to feign brotherly love because they actually are brothers.
One can still imagine that plenty of fraternal fur flew as they were growing up (and up) in the Swiss mountains: Both lantern-jawed Schochs started out as wrestlers before switching to snowboarding's giant slalom event.
It was a night for good story lines; a night for feeling good, even after the stage wall bearing the five Olympic rings spun on its axis and sent the rings out of sight: keeping their image safe from the raunchy lyrics and dancing to come as Ricky Martin bounced and thrusted in more or less the same airspace where Fabris had placed his hand over his heart just a few minutes earlier.
It was quite a transition: one that is Salt Lake City's primary legacy to the Olympics. Like Turin, Salt Lake City is not known as the party capital of its nation, but setting up a medal plaza in the center of town and hiring big acts like Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette to play after the ceremonies was a big hit with the spectators and athletes alike.
Turin, with its historic Piazza Castello for an outdoor stage, has taken the concept to a grander level, and though I'm still more into national anthems at an Olympics than reheated hits, and though I'm still searching for the connection between Latin-infused flamenco-tinged pop and the winter Games, sometimes it's best to not think too deeply or darkly.
Keeping track of Fabris's medal count on Wednesday night was a lot more fun than counting empty seats in the mountains.
For those who understand no explanation is needed, ...For those who don't none will.
