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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2002
Rumsfeld visits troops, athletes
SALT LAKE CITY -- A shoulder injury once dashed the Olympic dreams of a young wrestler named Donald Rumsfeld. Now secretary of defense, his Olympic moment arrived Tuesday.
Here to visit troops helping in a $310-million security effort, Rumsfeld congratulated soldiers, spent time with athletes and watched events.
Rumsfeld also congratulated U.S. snowboarder Chris Klug, who was inside an Olympic village gift shop when the secretary strolled through.
"He told me he was proud of me," said Klug, who competed 19 months after a liver transplant and won a bronze medal in the parallel giant slalom.
Later, Rumsfeld stood and applauded as U.S. speed skater Derek Parra won gold in the 1,500 meters before watching the U.S. women's hockey team play Sweden in the semifinals.
After Parra's race, Rumsfeld was so excited, he called his boss.
"I just got off the phone with the president," he said. "I told him there was a world record set and by an American. He was more than delighted."
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Rumsfeld was close to a berth on the U.S. Olympic wrestling team as a young man, but a separated shoulder kept him from qualifying.
OHNO'S BETTER: American speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who has a 11/4-inch gash on his left thigh where his own skate cut him Saturday, said he has some pain but nothing that should slow him.
"He looked great," his coach, Susan Ellis, said after Ohno's first practice. "He had no stiffness today. He's in good spirits."
Ellis predicted Ohno's crash near the finish in the 1,000 meters would have no effect on his psyche going into tonight's 1,500.
His ability to accelerate quickly with the injury won't be as crucial as it would be for shorter races, such as the 500, Ellis said.
DRUGS: The athlete who left the Games after a failed drug test was identified by Belarussian Sports and Tourism Minister Yevgeny Vorsin as Yulia Pavlovich, a short-track speed skater.
A test found a steroid level nearly 400 times the legal limit. Pavlovich vanished from Olympic Village housing Monday after failing to show up for a second test.
Officials barred Pavlovich from the Games pending an investigation and punished the Belarus Olympic Committee for allegedly helping her avoid another exam.
But the Games remain free of a doping case because the bag carrying her urine sample was not properly sealed. It was broken by a lab courier in an apparent accident.
NHL IN THE AIR: National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman isn't ready to commit to a third shutdown for the 2006 Games.
Bettman, in Utah to watch his league's best players compete for gold, said the NHL will evaluate the public's reaction to the Games and players' opinions before formulating strategy for the Games in Turin, Italy.
Bettman and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow insisted their decision on 2006 wouldn't be based on this week's results.
ELDREDGE HANGS IT UP: Todd Eldredge withdrew from next month's World Championships in Nagano, Japan, making these Games his last Olympic-eligible competition.
A six-time U.S. men's champion, Eldredge finished sixth Thursday in his third and final Olympics. An invitation to the World Championships will be extended to Matt Savoie, fourth at last month's U.S. nationals.
"Now it's time to let Matt Savoie get his name in the system," said Richard Callaghan, Eldredge's longtime coach.
NO REGRETS: Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky refused to apologize for Monday's comments in which he accused other Olympic teams of delighting in Canadian hockey failures.
"Was it emotional? Yeah. Did it come from my heart? Yeah. I felt our team was getting bombarded, so I stood up for our hockey club," Gretzky said Tuesday. "Do I apologize? I have nothing to apologize for. I've said it, and let's move on."
He said Monday that other countries hate Canada: "The Americans love our poor start. Nobody wants us to win except our players and our loyal fans."
SKATING CONTROVERSY: Skating union investigators interviewed a championship judge who said he witnessed a confession of a vote-swapping deal by the judge in the middle of the judging scandal.
The internal investigation is focusing on what the deal was, who made it and who pressured French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne to vote for a Russian pair over a Canadian couple.
"I left the interview with confidence that they'll get to the bottom of it," said Jon Jackson, an International Skating Union judge and an attorney from San Francisco.
Jackson said he saw a "confession" by Le Gougne in a hotel lobby about an hour after the pairs competition in which she told Sally Stapleford, an ISU council member, that, "I did this for my dance team. It's a deal with the Russians, first place for first place."
The alleged deal in pairs was in exchange for votes for the French ice dance team of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, who won the gold medal Monday.
ISU vice president Katsuichiro Hisanaga of Japan said Didier Gailhaguet, the head of the French skating federation, had pressured judges in the past and should be kicked out of the ISU if he forced Le Gougne to cheat.
STILL NO TOWERS: New York paramedic Michael Voudouris lost his appeal to use a sled that has a painting of the World Trade Center towers for his skeleton race.
Officials from the International Bobsled Federation and International Olympic Committee rejected his request, citing an IOC rule that bans "political, religious or racial propaganda" in Olympic competition areas.
"That's the way it's going to stand," said Voudouris, who has dual citizenship and races for Greece.
HEIDEN'S JUDGMENT: Eric Heiden, who won five speed skating golds at the 1980 Olympics, believes sports that need judges shouldn't be in the Games, and he isn't crazy about some of the Games' newest events.
Such as freestyle skiing aerials.
"The consequences of a poor jumper are drastic. I worry about introducing some of these sports with a high risk factor," said Heiden, an orthopedic surgeon and team doctor for the U.S. speed skaters.
Heiden's comments came before American Eric Bergoust took a scary-looking tumble in the aerials.
"Americans are used to immediate rewards. ... I don't like to see sports where people risk their lives, but that's America," he said.