Young Picabo fans settle for a wave

SNOWBASIN, Utah -- At least the students from Lakeside Elementary School got to wave to Picabo Street, and she waved back.

Eight-year-old Jordan MacPherson got up at 4 a.m., the earliest he had ever been awake not counting Christmas. He had to be at the school by 5:50.

He and 49 other children at the West Point, Utah, school won a drawing to attend the women's downhill race, one of the most anticipated events of the Olympics.

They were among the 23,000 or so fans who left the mountain disappointed Monday when the race was postponed until today because of high winds at the top of the course.

"I didn't like how they canceled it," Jordan said.

But weather often delays such races, sometimes for days.

And getting to Snowbasin is no simple task. To make the 10 a.m. start, spectators must rise early, make their way to a parking lot, then take a long bus ride up Mount Ogden. Transportation problems kept some 3,000 people from seeing the start of the men's downhill Sunday.

By Monday, the system was operating smoothly. The big metal stands were packed with a decidedly pro-Picabo crowd. After all, the two-time Olympic medalist makes her home just up the road in Park City.

About 11:30 a.m., however, it was announced that there would be no race. There were a few groans, a couple shouts of "No," then people joined the giant gathering that would wait for the ride back down the hill.

Most said they would come back today. Some said they couldn't.

Kathleen Handy, 34, of Salt Lake City certainly won't. Her baby is due Friday.

"That would be pushing it," she said.

UNDER FIRE: If goaltender Natalya Trunova felt like she had a bull's-eye painted on her forehead Monday, she had good reason. The goaltender for Kazakstan made 59 saves against Canada in the first-round hockey game.

Trunova's effort still wasn't enough as Canada won 7-0. Kazakstan got off just 11 shots at goalie Kim St. Pierre.

RINGING THE BELL: When the cowbell rang, traders began frantically bidding, buying and selling ... 2,200 miles away on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

In Wall Street's nod to the Olympics, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, NYSE president Cathy Kinney and Questar Corp. CEO Don Cash rang the opening bell via satellite from Salt Lake City.

Traders in New York watched a video feed as the three rang the foot-high cowbell decorated with Olympic insignia.

It was only the third time the opening bell was rung outside New York, and the first time a cowbell was used.

CHANGE OF SEASONS: U.S. speed-skater Chris Witty, who placed fifth in cycling's 500-meter time trial at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, will try to medal Wednesday over a different 500 meters: on ice. Only the ninth athlete to compete in the Summer and Winter Games, Witty won a silver (1,000 meters) and bronze (1,500) at the 1998 Games in Nagano.

PLAN IN MIND: University of Colorado football player and Olympic freestyle moguls skier Jeremy Bloom, who has been fighting the NCAA for the right to earn endorsement money from skiing, was asked recently what he would do if he won the $25,000 that comes with a gold medal.

"I'd try to bribe the NCAA," Bloom said.

MAYBE SHORTER'S BETTER: Drexel engineering professor Prawat Nagvajara, Thailand's first Winter Games athlete, is taking to the snow again. Nagvajara, 43, dropped out of the 30-kilometer cross-country race Saturday -- he fell early, lost his sunglasses, tired and was about to throw up -- but intends to compete in the 1.5K next week.

NAME GAME: Two Germans named Sylke have dominated women's luge over the past three years. Sylke Kraushaar, the 1998 Olympic champion, and Sylke Otto have finished 1-2 in the overall World Cup standings since 1999. At the past two World Championships, Otto has finished first and Kraushaar second.

IMMERSED IN WAX: They started showing up in Salt Lake City three years ago with test tubes, microscopes, hundreds of wax samples and bags full of skis. They scoped out remote cabins, for theirs is top-secret work. On the slopes at Snowbasin, Park City and Soldier Hollow they took snow samples at dawn, noon and midafternoon. They measured air temperature, snow temperature, humidity and wind. They tested in the sun and in the shade, making note of the sharpness of the snow crystals in various conditions.

Then, they headed home with their well-guarded findings and attempted to come up with perfect wax concoctions for their Olympic skiers.

Norwegians take waxing seriously. So seriously they have more than 40 wax technicians working 12-hour shifts at these Games. Other countries, hoping to keep up, have beefed up their waxing operations. The United States, which went to full-time waxing in 1999, has a staff of about a dozen -- six Nordic and six Alpine -- and spends $100,000 a year on wax and surfacing equipment. Some of the top European teams spend 10 times that.

SEEKING REDEMPTION: After two straight Olympics of putting the gold medal out of reach in the Nordic combined with incredible ski jumping on the first day, the Japanese team flopped on home soil at the 1998 Games in Nagano. In the ski jumping part of the event Thursday, the Japanese hope to begin to redeem their fifth-place finish of four years ago.

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