SPORT
FROM fire to ice, nothing seems
to be going right at the Winter
Olympics.
The torch malfunctioned.
Warm weather turned the slopes
and the event schedule to slop. A
Zamboni (ice resurfacer) had to
ride to the rescue from Calgary
following a meltdown at the
speedskating rink.
By Tuesday, the Glitch Games
were in full swing: 20,000
standing-room tickets for the
snowboarding venue were
voided because fans had fallen
between the bales of hay
under the melting layers of
trucked-in snow.
Want to take a picture of the
Olympic cauldron? Make sure
that camera is pressed up against
the chain-link fence — provided
there’s room to squeeze in and a
Vancouver 2010 banner isn’t in
the way.
Organisers expected to unveil
a plan overnight to address the
rising public outcry and bring
people closer to the flame, the
most distinguished and enduring
symbol of any Olympics.
‘‘Perhaps,’’ conceded Renee
Smith-Valade, a spokeswoman
for the organising committee,
‘‘we did underestimate the degree to which people would want
to get close to it.’’
Perhaps. At a news conference,
a Canadian TV reporter asked
organisers why the flame was
hidden behind ‘‘a ratty-looking
prison-camp fence’’.
The cancelled tickets at Cypress Mountain — 28,000 in all —
mean about A1.66 million in lost
revenue for the Games, and disappointment for the snowboarding fans.
The events schedule, meanwhile, looks like it’s been run
over by a bobsled.
On Tuesday alone, the men’s
super-combined, up in the mountains at Whistler, was postponed
because of an overnight snowstorm. The snowboard cross finals were rescheduled. Women’s
downhill training was cancelled.
This after downhill training
was postponed repeatedly earlier
in the Olympics because of wet
weather that messed with the
snow.
It’s been so mild that locals
have jokingly called it the
Vancouver Summer Olympics.
Indoors, there are the ice escapades. At the Richmond Oval, the
speedskating venue, the
resurfacing machine went on the
blink Monday. Instead of a track
as smooth as glass, it left piles of
slush and pools of water.
So the Olympics, which has a
sponsorship deal with Olympia
ice resurfacers, had to call in a
different brand for replacement
— a Zamboni, from a whole
province over in Calgary.
Vancouver organisers say
they’re responding as best they
can to problems mostly out of
their control.
Speed skater Muir
sets sights on 2014
By CARLY CRAWFORD
at the Winter Olympics
FIFTEEN months ago,
Sydney nurse Sophie
Muir could barely take a
corner on an ice rink.
Today, she is Australia’s
first ever female long track
Olympian.
A champion inline skater,
Muir only took up speed
skating in late 2008 after
seeing the sport during a
backpacking trip to
speedskating mecca, The
Netherlands.
So to even qualify for the
Games, let alone finish inside the top 30 in the 500m as
she did yesterday, is a huge
accomplishment.
‘‘Stepping out there today
with that crowd was just one
of the best experiences of my
life,’’ she said.
‘‘There were so many
screaming Aussies out there
that it really lifted me and
when I stood on the start line
I just felt like a million
dollars.’’
But as a former inline
skating champion, she is
hungry for more and has
set her sights set on Sochi
in 2014.
‘‘I want to prove myself, I
GOING HELL FOR LEATHER: Speed skater Sophie Muir competing in her 500m time trial in Vancouver yesterday don’t want to just settle for
these kinds of rankings,’’
she said.
‘‘Four years is a long way
away but look what I managed to achieve in 15
had to be standardised equipment
A U S T R A L I A N l u g e r H a n n a h Geisenberger, taking the bronze.
months? Imagine what we
Campbell-Pegg says she hopes her
‘‘I’m taking some good memories and that there was a bias towards
could do with another
sport’s governing body will imple- from this but also some emotional Germans in the sport.
four years.’’
ment a series of changes after the ones too,’’ she said. ‘‘Hopefully as a
‘‘The track itself is actually a good
Muir, 25, finished 29th in a
tragic death of Georgian Nodar result of what happened there’ll be track. It’s nowhere near as technical
field of 35, posting a final
Kumaritashvili at the Vancouver some changes in the sport which are as some of the other tracks in the
time score of 79.04, 2.95
Winter Olympics.
changes that needed to happen.’’
world, some of the other tracks really
seconds behind gold medalCampbell-Pegg finished 23rd on
Campbell-Pegg ultimately had no scare me,’’ she said.
list Sang-Hwa Lee of Korea.
Tuesday and said she will take mixed major problems with the track, her
‘‘It was so much faster than any
German Jenny Wolf took
emotions away from the event.
beef being that smaller nations other track in the world that, at that
silver and China’s Beixing
speed, you can not afford to make a
German Tatjana Huefner won, fol- needed to be looked after better.
Wang secured bronze.
She said the sport’s minnows single mistake and that’s what I think
lowed by Austrian Nina Reithmayer
Muir will contest the
with another German, Natalie needed equal access to tracks, there it all came down to.’’
1000m event tomorrow.
Aussie luger urges changes in wake of accident
Teen snowboarder must defy pain barrier
SNOWBOARDING prodigy
Scott James will be forced to
ride through the pain barrier in his first Winter
Olympics after fracturing
his wrist in sloppy conditions at the Cypress Mountain halfpipe.
Australia’s youngest male
Winter Olympian (pictured)
caught his heel-edge in the
halfpipe on Monday night
and slapped against the wall
in training.
But coach Ben Bright said
the 15-year-old was good to
go for Wednesday’s competition, describing him as
‘‘one tough little soldier’’.
‘‘(It was a) terrible ’pipe
last night and he got caught
in what I like to call one of
the snow snakes (chopped
up snow),’’ Bright said.
‘‘He’s got a fractured bone
in his right wrist but he’s
pushing through it and rode
well tonight and he’s still in
good shape for tomorrow.’’
Bright said James was
‘‘pretty mellow’’ about the
whole thing and kept training with the injury.
He even backed up for a
final full session on Tuesday
night, in conditions Bright
described as ‘‘125 million per
cent better’’.
James, a 2008 US Open
junior halfpipe champion,
isn’t expected to trouble the
big guns such as defending
American champion Shaun
White on Wednesday and is
unlikely to make the final
but his ability at such a
tender age has plenty of
people taking notice.
PUB:
It’s not been
all smooth
sailing in
Vancouver
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www.ntnews.com.au
Northern Territory News, Thursday, February 18, 2010 — 43