Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
February 9, 2002, Washington Post

The Old Olympic Try

The Winter Olympics are here. Everyone is excited about the new sports at this year's Games. Sure, the skeleton racing and snowboarding will be cool, but don't forget the older sports that have given fans plenty of Olympic thrills in the past and promise to provide even more this year.

What sports am I talking about? Here are two standbys:

Ice hockey. The men's tournament at the Winter Olympics is the best hockey tournament in the world. Better than the Stanley Cup. Better than the "Frozen Four," the college national championship. Better than the women's Olympic tournament where only two teams (the United States and Canada) have any real chance for a gold medal.

At the Olympics, National Hockey League stars and other international standouts are not just playing for money and the greater honor of the Florida Panthers or the Columbus Blue Jackets. These guys are skating for gold-medal glory and their native countries. That means the games are super intense. The action is hard-hitting and nonstop. In almost every game the winner moves on and the loser goes home. Talk about pressure.

Men's hockey, of course, gave America one of its greatest Olympic memories. In 1980, a bunch of college kids from the U.S.A. shocked the world by upsetting the world-champion Soviet Union team. It was as if a pickup baseball team had knocked off the New York Yankees.

What are the chances for an upset this year? About a half-dozen teams, including the United States, have legitimate gold-medal hopes. In hockey, a team can ride a hot goaltender all the way to the gold. The United States did it with Jim Craig in 1980. The Czech Republic had Dominik "The Dominator" Hasek in 1998. Who knows, maybe some team will do the same this year.

Downhill skiing. Downhill races are beautiful because they are so simple. Point your skis down the hill and see who can get to the finish line the fastest. The races are always a thrill-a-second ride.

This year's men's course at Salt Lake City is called "the Grizzly," and it's a 3,000-foot plunge with four jumps, hair-raising turns and drops where skiers hit speeds of nearly 85 miles per hour.

The women's course, "the Wildflower," is only slightly slower and every bit as scary.

In 1976, the downhill gave the Winter Olympics its most thrilling moment. Franz Klammer was the world champion and the favorite to win the gold medal in front of his fellow Austrians at the Innsbruck Olympics. Klammer was the last skier. He knew the time he had to beat. Klammer bolted from the gate and flew down the mountain, his skis clattering along the icy Alpine slope. All the way down, Klammer teetered on the edge of disaster. Three times, he nearly fell. But Klammer kept it together and flashed across the finish line just fractions of a second ahead of the best time. He had won the gold.

Maybe America's Picabo Street can thrill the hometown crowd in this year's Olympic downhill, just as Franz Klammer did in 1976.

You should make a point of watching. Some of the "old" sports such as hockey and downhill are plenty cool, too.

Fred Bowen is the author of sports novels for kids.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company