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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Thrills, spills, drug ills shape 'Japan Alps' Olympics
And like the most Olympics, they achieved their feats with a dash of controversy, a dose of new technology and heaps of athletic excellence at the final winter games of the century.
In Nagano, snowboarding, curling and women's ice hockey all made their debut as official medal sports -- with snowboarding staged to keep up with the ''extreme'' tastes of younger generations.
In return, Olympic leaders got more than what they had anticipated.
They demanded the return of Ross Rebagliati's gold medal after he tested positive for marijuana, then were told 24 hours later that they could not when an appeal panel ruled that concrete rules regarding the drug were not in place.
For a brief while, the hashish problem became the most hotly debated issue in town, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) acted quickly by forming a marijuana task force.
All of this happened while an Austrian snowboarder trashed some hotel equipment and had his accreditation taken away by his own team.
These, however, were mere blemishes on a silver plate of top-notch athleticism on the ice rinks and snowy slopes. Years from now, winter sports fans will long remember the name Hermann Maier.
The Austrian ''extraterrestrial'' muscle man staged the most spectacular ski crash in recent memory during the men's downhill. In the following week, he staged an equally spectacular comeback with gold medals in the super G and the giant slalom.
''Sorry about my downhill. But I'm so happy with my two medals,'' said Maier, who in the past laid bricks in order to develop strength and earn a spot on Austria's vaunted Alpine team.
Women's downhiller Katja Seizinger stayed on her skis throughout her races and defended her Olympic title, then added the Alpine combined gold and the giant slalom bronze.
Originally a speed-event specialist, the daughter of a wealthy German industrialist has become one of the great all-around skiers of all-time by winning medals in every Alpine ski discipline except the slalom.
There were sparse crowds on the cross country ski trails of Hakuba, and Bjorn Daehlie told reporters he ''felt lonely'' on the trails after his first race. But this did not stop him from becoming the most prolific medal collector ever in the winter games.
Daehlie had a rough start, finishing 20th in the 30-kilometer classical race on skis with the wrong wax. Afterward, it was gold, silver, gold and gold in his next four races.
At the end, the 30-year-old Norwegian landed his record eighth Olympic gold medal and 12th overall medal, another landmark. But the results did not seem to affect him.
''I haven't been focusing on these records, it's the journalists who do,'' Daehlie said after winning his third gold off the Nagano Games. ''It's a nice feeling to know I have won so much, but I don't feel I'm the best skier ever. I'm looking forward to skiing better races in the future.''
German speed skater Gunda Niemann approached a comparable level of excellence by winning a gold and two silvers and increased her Olympic cache to eight medals, tying the women's record in the sport.
But the biggest achiever on Nagano's slick M-Wave indoor oval was a hinge-like mechanism located underneath the boot of the slap skates which made their Olympic debut. And what a debut it was.
World records in five distances were pulverized by Dutch, Norwegian and German skaters using the innovative blades.
So radical were the repercussions felt in the sport that the International Skating Union decided to keep official world records marked by slap skates separate from those done on ''classical'' skates.
Bobsledders and lugers had the unique experience of sliding down the first Olympic track with two uphill sections, and they responded with some unprecedented results of their own.
German soldier Georg Hackl outclassed a field of 34 lugers to win his third straight Olympic men's singles title, but the two-man bobsleigh ended up in a tie for the gold because Italy I and Canada I completed four runs with the same total time -- 3 minutes, 37.24 seconds.
''To get the same exact time even after four runs. When you think about it, it's incredible,'' said Canada I pilot Pierre Lueders. The result led to calls from some teams to clock races down to thousandths of a second, as is done in luge.
The 18th Winter Games were also a showcase of heartbreaks.
Italian ski hero Alberto Tomba skidded out of contention in the men's slalom, stopping his streak of medals at three straight Olympics.
Wayne Gretzky and fellow NHL stars failed to bring home Canada's first ice hockey gold medal in 46 years.
Russian cross country star Elena Vaelbe, stricken by the flu, fell short yet again of winning an individual gold.
The American hockey players, losers in the quarterfinals, took their frustrations out by causing 3,000 dollars worth of damage at the Olympic Village.
Yet some losers proved to be winners in the end. Sportsmanship, fortunately, is still alive.
''We lost fair and square,'' said Gretzky, ice hockey's ''Great One.'' ''When you don't win you have to accept the lumps and take your bruises. When you win you accept the flowers and roses.'' (Kyodo News)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun