THAT'S A W/RAP

Rain on Tuesday was snow at the summits.  Great skiing Wednesday.

Things have gone well for Sochi.  If barely.  In the mountain cluster there are at least 8 huge, brand new trams that ferry people from the valley floor up to venues or skiing.  Free to anyone with a spectator pass.  Truly spectacular, but one gets the feeling that things are hanging by a thread here.  Thin veneer.  There was a growing sink hole outside the media area at our venue and general consensus is the jumps will eventually wind up 400m down the mountain in the river.  Not that they would be missed by many.  And then yesterday there was no PA for the trial round of the K125 Nordic combined team event.  Eerie silence.  Turns out the company that had installed the PA system 2 years ago had still not been paid and was using the last event (and their inside knowledge of the system) as a lever.  Ballsy move at Putin's Olympics.  Venue producer Kris Severson sat and waited while Sochi organizers urgently worked the phones trying to make a deal.    In the end the microphones were live and working for the first round of competition and whether the PA company was paid or not one can only hope they (and their families) are in a safe, undisclosed location.

Ski day was interesting with music pumped in to an empty, snow-filled bowl.  And what was the music...

Before the NC team event with team doc Jim Stray-Gundersen (wearing obligatory r/w&b moustache tattoo)and venue voice, Peter Graves, who is now working the alpine venue.

Men's Nordic combined went as everyone expected but not as US Team had hoped.  Super powers Norway (GOLD) and Germany (SILVER by less than 1 sec) barely edged out an aging Austrian team that jumped well and managed to catch a ride through the XC and pester to the end.  Bill Demong did a nice job in the 4th leg moving USA up from 8th to 6th, but nothing like the silver medal effort of 2010.  Dr. Jim Stray-Gundersen (who was USST doc in my day and has son Sten playing soccer at Dartmouth) did a great job of helping Todd Lodwick get to the starting line where Peter Graves was making the call on the (newly re-connected) PA.  Peter has been moved from medals plaza up the the alpine venue to fill in for a fired announcer (French) who was making too  many sarcastic comments (like telling the crowd to all get naked together- tres jolie!).  Peter will be on the PA for Mikaela Shiffrin's slalom event later today.

My Norma Rae statement- thank you Jodi..

The bittersweet feeling of the last day at the venue.  A beautiful day in every regard.  The event called live for NBCSN and a chopped up version then aired in late night (or so I understand).  With no US stand-outs there has been virtually no ski jumping shown in prime time.  Curious that we began the Olympics by showing training jumps of the women whose main event (with no US medals) was then pushed to fringe times/outlets.  Below, a shot of the NBC team at the jumps.  Many people behind the scenes even with 98% of the pictures coming fromthe host (not NBC's responsibility).  Great group that treated every show as though it was going prime time.

The NBC jump family in Sochi.

NC events are in the afternoon (vs. special jumping at 9:30 pm) so plenty of time to get to women's figure skating (riding xc announcer Chad Slamela's coat tails to get tix) and the end of USA-CAN women's hockey.  Arrived at game with 8 minutes left, USA up 2-0... left 45 minutes later having witnessed an incredible reversal of fortunes.

In figure skating I had to wonder if the home field advantage of Adelina Sotnikova played a role.  Admittedly HEAVY pressure, but the eruption of the crowd and raining of flowers seemed almost like an extra judged element of her routine.

Awoke to pouring rain Friday morning.  A good day to pack.  3am pick-up Saturday.