Italians End Up Treating the Games Like Their Own
By LYNN ZINSER
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 26 — In the end, the weather turned sparkling again — just as it had been for the opening ceremony — and Turin bade goodbye Sunday to an Olympics that finally seemed popular at home even as it got mixed reviews from its visitors from around the world.
The International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, struck an upbeat note in his final news conference and called the Games "truly magnificent" in his address at the closing ceremony. The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, attended the two-hour gala at the Olympic stadium after he had skipped the opening ceremony, which seemed to reflect Italy's less-than-enthusiastic attitude toward its Games.
The energy picked up in the city as the Games wore on. Organizers said more than 900,000 tickets were sold, which was 90 percent of capacity. The medals plaza in Piazza Castello became a festive gathering spot and revelers filled the arcaded streets of downtown Turin.
"We are very proud," said Valentino Castellani, president of the Turin organizing committee. "This exceeded all of our expectations."
But while Turin did not come in with the weight of high expectations, much of the rest of the world looks at the Games differently. In particular, NBC counts on Olympic ratings and instead watched its broadcasts routinely get clobbered by shows like "American Idol." The United States team captured 25 medals, its second-highest total ever in the Winter Games and good for No. 2 in the medal count behind Germany, but the flameout of some of its highest profile athletes like the skier Bode Miller and the men's hockey team contributed to a dearth of heartwarming American story lines.
One of the few was the speedskater Joey Cheek, who won a gold and silver medal and donated his United States Olympic Committee bonus — a total of $40,000 — to the organization Right to Play, which promotes sports in third-world countries.
Cheek was the American flag bearer for the closing ceremony, which was a post-Olympic version of Carnevale, a festival of acrobats and clowns. Many of the athletes marched in wearing red clown noses. The spectacle featured a performance by the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and ended with a ceremonial handoff to the next winter Olympic city, Vancouver, British Columbia. The United States delegation included Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and the race car driver Mario Andretti.
Even though earlier in the week Rogge was among those criticizing the uneven attendance and lack of atmosphere, he delivered on his promise of a positive assessment of the Games — he does not, as the former president Juan Antonio Samaranch did, proclaim any Games the "best ever."
At Sunday's news conference, Rogge said: "The I.O.C. is happy with the Games. We have the best-ever quality of sports infrastructure. Security worked very well. The athletes are happy."
But the Games were marred by a high-profile police raid of houses rented by Austrian cross-country skiers and biathletes. Their drug tests were negative, but the Italian police are still running tests on syringes and other medical products they seized from the houses. Rogge said the investigation could take a couple of weeks.
"I think we have to fight doping with every means that we have," he said. "Analytical findings are one thing. Urine and blood tests are one thing. We have other means to prove guilt."
The Games featured only one positive drug test, despite a 71 percent jump in the number of drug tests taken here over the number done at Salt Lake City in 2002. The biathlete Olga Pyleva of Russia was stripped of her silver medal when her test came up positive for a banned stimulant.
"I am not disappointed," Rogge said. "Today I have only one case to report. Of course, I do not know what will come out of the Austrian case. I believe frankly that this is already a good result from our actions."
Initially, organizers were also worried about transportation to the far-flung mountain sites — many of which are connected by one two-lane road full of hairpin turns — but aside from a few glitches in the system, transportation was not a major issue. The weather eventually turned wintry in the mountains after months of little snow.
Although protests disrupted the torch relay before the Games, security was not tested until the closing ceremony. A man managed to get on the stage during a speech by Castellani. The man shouted, "Passion lives in Torino," before being taken into custody by security officers.
"It is extremely difficult to organize a Winter Olympics," said Jean-Claude Killy, the former Olympic skiing champion and head of the I.O.C. coordination commission that oversaw Turin's preparations. "It is the role of the International Olympic Committee to keep the athletes satisfied, and they are happy. They are very pleased."
But a few did complain about the lack of atmosphere at some events. The Alpine skiing races did not attract the raucous crowd they normally do, even when the stands were full. The atmosphere at speedskating drooped during the sprint events, the least popular races among the Dutch fans, who otherwise packed the oval and filled it with energy.
The Dutch stood and cheered for every skater, regardless of nationality, and generally celebrated nonstop, with their "Little Beer" band keeping the atmosphere in full-party mode while the Zamboni swept the ice.
The Italians could celebrate gold medals in luge (by Armin Zoeggeler, the closing ceremony flag bearer), cross-country skiing and speedskating, with Enrico Fabris becoming an overnight national hero with two golds and a bronze.
After Fabris's last race, Berlusconi told him, "Enrico, you are part of Italian sports history now."
On Sunday, Turin's Games passed into history with the Italians embracing them after all.
AI
