The Olympic spirit

Posted: Sat February 7, 1998

A Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan?

Please. How can this tiny town with no snow, a too-short downhill course, and roads with barely enough room for side-by-side bicycles possibly host the largest Winter Games?

We're about to find out.

The Games began Saturday with a few minor glitches (of course). The raising of wooden pillars, at the start of the Opening Ceremony, is a Japanese religious tradition that is more than 1,000 years old. But an Amish barn raising would have taken less time to finish. And you may have seen the release of hundreds of dove-shaped balloons near the end of the ceremony. CBS probably didn't show you the handful of "dead" doves that nosedived back into the stadium.

But after the ceremony, the fun really got started. Now, journalists aren't known for being the most patient people on earth. This was never more true than when hundreds of us were forced to wait for more than an hour for buses to take us back to the main press center. You may not care about the hardships of the foreign press corps, but this fiasco was like the evacuation of the Titanic. Forget "women and children first." It was "get on a bus any way you can." Those lucky enough to wedge themselves onto a bus waved with mock sorrow to colleagues who were left behind.

But so far, the people of Nagano have shown enough good will and enthusiasm to offset the problems. Throngs of locals four-deep lined the streets leading to Minami Nagano Sports Park, site of the Opening Ceremony. They waved Japanese flags and cheered for every passing vehicle. Olympic volunteers are eager to help, even if they don't really understand what you just asked them. And all the locals are smiling, always smiling.

We'll see if they are still smiling in 15 days.

Opening Ceremony fashion notes

Best team uniform: Armenia. Long camel coats and fur hats. Very Dr. Zhivago.

Most daring dresser: Some may prefer the simplicity of the sumo wrestlers who wore nothing but their mawashi loincloths. But our vote goes to the flag bearer from Bermuda, who wore, you guessed it, Bermuda shorts.

Most likely to protect you on the subway: Canada. With their jaunty red berets, Team Canada looked like a brigade of New York City's Guardian Angels.

Most uninspired uniform: Team USA. This year it was steel-blue trench coats and black hats. At least the U.S. team didn't dress like cowboys again.

Quick quiz

How closely did you pay attention to the Opening Ceremony? Test yourself with this quiz. Answers are at the bottom of the file.

• a. "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina"
• b. "When Children Rule the World"
• c. "I Don't Know How to Love Him"

• a. One of the Snowlets
• b. President of the International Olympic Committee
• c. The first Grand Champion sumo wrestler born in the United States

• a. The 1992 Olympic silver medalist in figure skating
• b. One of Japan's three Olympic gold medalists
• c. Wife of famed O.J. Simpson trial judge Lance Ito

Bob Der and Erin Egan, senior editors at SI For Kids, will be filing daily from Nagano. For a kid-friendly version of these reports, check out SI For Kids Online starting February 9.

Anything you want to know about life in Nagano during the Games? Click here to send your question to Bob and Erin, or e-mail siwriters@cnnsi.com. Be sure to include your name and hometown. Selected questions will be answered in upcoming columns. You can also send questions for specific athletes, and our fearless correspondents will do their best to get a reply.