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Issue Date: February 3, 2001
Let the Games Begin!
The ultimate fan's guide to the Salt Lake Winter Olympics
The XIX Winter Games, which kick off Feb. 8 in Salt Lake City, will unite 2,400 diverse athletes from more than 80 nations in the Olympic spirit. Fans can take advantage of new technology this year: Results will be posted online in real time, so you can track the action as it occurs, at nbcolympics.com. If you prefer to watch the competition on television, here's a guide to highlighted events on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC.
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Day 1 (Feb. 8)
The opening ceremony kicks off at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium in Salt Lake City. Theme: "Light the Fire Within." (The 24-foot Olympic flame, which will burn natural gas at up to 8 million BTUs per hour, will be visible from miles away.) What to expect: fireworks, dancers, music and a parade of 3,000-plus athletes, coaches and performers. Over the next 17 days, 16 bands, from the Dave Matthews Band to Creed, will play live nightly at nearby Olympic Medals Plaza. Tune in: NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
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Day 2 (Feb. 9)
One of the two American-born winter sports (see Day 3 for the other), freestyle skiing captures the spirit of rock 'n' roll on the snow and in midair. As competitors take to the sky, DJs on the hill crank up house, rap and rock music to fuel the excitement of the mostly Gen-X crowd. During summer training, athletes jump into a 10-foot-deep pool filled with 750,000 gallons of water. Look for skiers to bounce down the 27-degree slope like human pogo sticks over 4-foot-high moguls, otherwise known as snow bumps. Tune in: Freestyle skiing, women's moguls final, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Pairs figure skating, short program, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET; cross country, men's and women's, NBC, 3-6 p.m. ET.
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Day 3 (Feb. 10)
Snowboarding continues to evolve. Even Star Trek's Universal Translator would be taxed by the glossary of the sport's 130 aerobatic maneuvers, such as the McTwist, Alley-oop and Michaelchuck (named for its snowboarding inventor). More than 5,000 feet of snow (enough to cover 33 football fields) went into building the Olympic halfpipe. In the halfpipe, look for American boarder Shannon Dunn. Tune in: Snowboard, women's halfpipe, NBC, 3-5 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Alpine skiing, men's downhill; ski jumping, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
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Day 4 (Feb. 11)
Feet first, no brakes and rocketing down a wall of ice, the luge (French for "sled") seems to go so fast that time slows down. Men's and women's races are measured to 1/1,000th of a second as athletes reach speeds of more than 90 mph over the frozen surface of the man-made track. Sleds are steered by flexible levers called kufens, which respond to subtle leg movements. After the '92 Games, the International Luge Federation opened the two-person luge (doubles) to mixed-sex teams (with the larger person on top for better aerodynamics); so far coed teams haven't happened. Women use the same track but start farther down the course. Tune in: luge, men's singles, NBC, 4-5 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Alpine skiing, women's downhill; pairs figure skating, long program; speed skating, men's 500m, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
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Day 5 (Feb. 12)
There's scientific proof that cross-country skiing is the oldest of all winter sports. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of primitive skis used in snowy Norway more than 5,000 years ago. Olympic cross-country skiing celebrates both the ancient tradition of this sport and improvements in technique, with races featuring the classical style and a freestyle format. In the classical form, skiers stride in a straight line, staying in defined parallel tracks. Freestyle more closely resembles skating, as athletes leave the tracks and push off with both legs. New this year: the women's 1.5km sprint. Tune in: cross country, men's 15km, NBC, 4-5 p.m. ET; luge, women's 10km, MSNBC, 1-6 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Ice hockey, USA women's team (defending its gold medal) vs. Germany, MSNBC, 1-6 p.m. ET.
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Day 6 (Feb. 13)
The flying V universally used by ski jumpers (like American Olympian Todd Lodwick) didn't come from any great experiment. During the '80s, epileptic Swedish skier Jan Bokloev suffered a minor seizure during a jump, which forced his body downward and splayed his legs into a V. Rather than slicing through the air, the position created a larger surface area, allowing him to float to his best distance ever. A new generation of jumpers embraced the idea and refined it to the stance we see now. Speeds of 60 mph are reached in flights lasting nearly 30 seconds. Tune in: Ski jumping, K-120m individual, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Biathlon, men's 10k sprint, NBC, 4-5 p.m. ET; short-track speed skating finals, women's 1,500m, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET; men's curling, USA vs. Norway, CNBC, 6 p.m.-midnight ET.
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Day 7 (Feb. 14)
Snowboarding, which debuted at the '98 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, has premiered a new race: the parallel giant slalom, where speed is the name of the game. On a course similar to Alpine skiing's giant slalom, two snowboarders race side by side. Men and women compete in alternating rounds. Swoosh! Tune in: Snowboarding, women's parallel giant slalom, NBC, 4-5 p.m. ET; snowboarding, men's parallel giant slalom, NBC, 8 p.m.-midnight ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Figure skating, men's long program, NBC, 8 p.m.-midnight ET; women's ice hockey, USA vs. China, CNBC, 6 p.m.-midnight ET.
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Day 8 (Feb. 15)
Take NBC's bowling sitcom "Ed", send him back to icy 16th-century Scotland, throw in a few brooms, and you've almost got curling. The object of this ancient Scottish game, however, is closer to shuffleboard. Each member of the four-person team takes two turns sliding 42-pound stones down a lane of ice while other team members man the brooms. The lead sweeper (the skip) tells the shooter where to aim and directs the other sweepers to brush the ice in order to control the sliding stone. The goal is to have one of your team's stones closest to the bull's-eye by the round's end. A twist of the wrist causes the granite to spin, or "curl," as it slides toward the target, called the house. Tune in: USA men vs. France, MSNBC, 1-6 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Figure skating, ice dancing, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET; ice hockey, USA men vs. Finland, NBC, 8 p.m.-1:35 a.m. ET.
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Day 9 (Feb. 16)
The only home hockey team that has won Olympic gold has been the U.S. men's team, and they've done it twice: at Squaw Valley, Calif., in 1960 and at Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980. The 2002 men's team hopes to perform the Olympic version of the hat trick. But first, watch the 1998 Nagano gold medal-winning U.S. women's team defend their medal. They took the first Olympic gold in women's hockey and are eager to hold on to it. Tune in: Ice hockey, USA women vs. Finland, NBC, 1-6 p.m. ET; ice hockey, USA men vs. Russia, NBC, 11:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Alpine skiing, men's Super G; freestyle skiing, men's and women's aerials competition, NBC, 8-11 p.m. ET.
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Day 10 (Feb. 17)
In figure skating, it's not all about solitary skaters like Tim Goebel doing quadruple jumps. Ice dancing is one of the most watched Olympic events. U.S. pairs competitors Peter Tchernyshev and Naomi Lang, who already have performed two compulsory ballroom-style dances (each worth 10%), will tonight perform an original dance (worth 30%) set to a predetermined musical style.
Tune in: Figure skating, ice dancing, NBC, 7-11 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Alpine skiing, women's Super G; speed skating, women's 1,000m, NBC, 7-11 p.m. ET.
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Day 11 (Feb. 18)
Like snowboarders, aerial skiers practice their airborne acrobatics year-round in a pool. To soften their 55-mph dives, thousands of bubbles are piped in. Their skills are paying off as the sport's stock rises. The late-December qualifying competition at the 2002 Olympic site drew an estimated 20,000, which the U.S. Ski Team says was a record for a freestyle event in this country. Whom to look for this year: 1998 Olympic champion Eric Bergoust and Olympic newcomer Emily Cook, both of Park City, Utah. Tune in: Freestyle skiing, women's aerials final, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Ice hockey, USA men vs. qualifying winner, NBC, 1-6 p.m. ET; figure skating, dance and free dance, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
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Day 12 (Feb. 19)
Speed skating comes in two forms, traditional long-track skating and short-track, in which athletes circle the oval in tight packs resembling a roller derby game. Look for 19-year-old Shani Davis, the first African-American Olympic speed skater. Tune in: Speed skating, men's 1,500m, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Bobsled, women's final; figure skating, women's short program, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
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Day 13 (Feb. 20)
The skeleton may conjure up images of a creature from Scary Movie or Monsters, Inc., but it's just the luge in reverse, a sled where the athlete lies head first on his stomach with his arms back at his sides. Although absent for more than 50 years from the Olympics (men last competed in 1948), the sport dates back to 1884 (the USA has won three of the six Olympic skeleton medals ever awarded). How it got its name: Spectators thought the metal model introduced in 1892 looked like a skeleton. Racing on the same track as the luge and bobsled, male and female competitors (known as sliders) take a running start and dive onto the sled, reaching speeds of 90 mph (with only a chin guard and acrylic mask to protect their faces). Among U.S. competitors: Jim Shea, 33, whose father and grandfather competed in previous Winter Olympics, making him America's first third-generation Winter Olympian. Tune in: Skeleton, men's and women's finals, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Short-track speed skating finals, men's 1,500m and women's 3,000m, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET; ice hockey, USA men's quarterfinal, MSNBC, 1-6 p.m. ET.
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Day 14 (Feb. 21)
Long gone are the days of lithe downhill skiers like Jean-Claude Killy. To gain critical fractions of a second out of the starting gate, brute power is required. (See American Olympic slalom skier Bode Miller.) In a high-speed sport over long courses, safety comes first; pine needles are even scattered along the course to aid athletes' depth perception. Note: Men and women compete on different courses. Tune in: Alpine skiing, men's giant slalom, NBC, 8 p.m.-midnight ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Figure skating, women's long program, NBC, 8 p.m.-midnight ET; ice hockey, women's gold medal game, begins on CNBC at 7 p.m. ET and concludes on NBC, 8 p.m.-midnight ET.
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Day 15 (Feb. 22)
Heated rivalries ignite the ice in women's and men's figure skating. On the slippery stage of the Salt Lake Ice Center, points for athleticism and artistry will determine the winner of the Olympic version of the Cold War. But tonight, with the medals already handed out, it's about letting go and having fun. Tune in: Figure skating, champions gala, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Bobsled, four-man, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET; ice hockey, men's semifinal, and curling, men's gold medal, MSNBC, 1-7 p.m. ET.
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Day 16 (Feb. 23)
Fun fact: The U.S. bobsled, designed by NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine, is nicknamed the Bo-Dyn. The four-person bobsled could include women in the 2006 Games (women debut in the two-person event this Olympics), but for now, the quadruple is a men-only club. At Olympic Park, the 4,300-foot-long bob run includes 15 high-banked curves. Athletes are subjected to 4 Gs (four times the force of gravity). Tune in: Bobsled, four-man final, NBC, 8-11:30 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Ice hockey, men's bronze medal, NBC, 1:30-5:30 p.m. ET.
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Day 17 (Feb. 24)
By the closing ceremony, the Salt Lake Games will have cost nearly $2 billion to stage. U.S. athletes will get $25,000 for each gold medal they win, which is $10,000 more than athletes got at the '98 Games; $15,000 for silver, up from $10,000; and $10,000 for bronze, up from $7,500. Tune in: Closing ceremony, NBC, 8-11 p.m. ET.
OTHER EVENTS: Ice hockey, men's gold medal, NBC, 2:30-6 p.m. ET.
-- Matthew Graham
Landscape by Frank Jensen, Utah Division of Travel
Also this week:
We look at Olympic hopefuls through the eyes of past Olympians:
 Scott Hamilton on Michelle Kwan
Mike Eruzione on Cammi Granato
Eric Heiden on Apolo Anton Ohno
A bonus bunch of Olympic-themed Frame Games
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