Opening Day

The Torino Olympics will officially open in 2 hours but we will not feel the effects up here in tiny Pragelato. All eyes and efforts are focussed on the events that will begin tomorrow @ 11 am when the Nordic combined skiers take their first competitive jumps. By afternoon they will have topped off their morning jumping efforts with 15 kms of cross country and the first medals of the Games will be awarded. There are two strong stories in this event- Hannu Manninen, a Finn who has won everything in Nordic combined EXCEPT an individual Olympic or world championship medal will try to shake 3 medal-less Games (he has team medals). He is big for a ski jumper (6'2") and initially had trouble with the thin air and tail wind here in Pragelato. In today's training, however, he jumped very well and with this momentum he's again looking like the favorite. He's an extremely friendly guy who was very generous with his time as we interviewed him this afternoon (check out his webstie www.hannumanninen.net). The other story is Todd Lodwick: another medal-less skier who's competing in his 4th Olympics. At 29 he says this is his last season. He and his wife Sunny just had a baby daughter, Charley, a little over a month ago and the whole family is in town to watch. Todd's has won world cups and had many top 3 finishes (just 2nd and 3rd in the world cup events preceding the Games); he certainly has the ability to medal here. The key for him will be a great start in jumping. His last training jump today was great and should give him a good feeling for tomorrow. Bad news- he was throwing up with flu-like symptoms last night but hopes to shake this with rest and fluids today.
The ski jumpers got their first look at the K95 jump today. Their training scheduled for yesterday was blown out. Big surprise in training was the performance of the Japanese who have not done well this year. Especially shocking was "Happy" Harada who is 37 (10 years older than most of the field) and retired from world cup competition four years ago. No one could believe that he made the Japanese team. He then further amazed today by posting some of the longest jumps of the afternoon. There are 86 jumpers here. The field will be shrunk to 50 with a qualifying competion tomorrow... which will make for a busy day- we'll get the Nordic combined show put together for the afternoon opening of TV coverage. Then turn around and getthe ski jumping show edited for late night. Good news- it looks like all of the Americans will be in the jumping coverage tomorrow night.
Matt Vasgerdsian- the voice of Padres baseball and Olympic softball and baseball- will handle the play by play for all the jumping coverage. Tim Daggett who won gold and bronze as a gymnast in the 1984 Olympics will handle the sideline (outrun) reporting. Both Matt and Tim are new to the sport of ski jumping but have been learning on the fly and can almost pronounce Norwegian Roar Ljoekelsoey's name without flinching.
Brother Brad and his wife Barb arrived safely after circling much of Torino by taxi and finally finding a bus to Pragelato. Tonight Caitlyn Murphy and Leah Venti will use Pragelato for their base camp before an assualt on Sauze d'Oulx where the plan to cheer their pal Hannah Kearney in the freestyle moguls event- an event that will take place tomorrow night under the lights.
We've been waiting long enough- let the games begin!