Short-track long on controversy

Jonathan Greco is a 1997 graduate of Oneonta High who is working as part of the Big Screen Network production team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Greco is writing a daily journal of his experiences at the Games for The Daily Star.

Have I got some stories for you.

On Friday, the big news was in figure skating, where the Canadian pairs silver medalists received golds. The Russians got to keep the golds they won during the competition. With the scandal surrounding this situation, this was the closest decision to the right decision.

The U.S. men's hockey team capped a very long Friday for us, playing Finland in front of the loudest crowd at the E Center thus far. The Americans won, 6-0, against a team that has earned bronze the last two Olympics and is still favored to medal in this one.

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This just in: The new sport to watch is short-track speedskating. It's easy to lose yourself in the speed, the strategy and, of course, the crashes.

We watch the Winter Games for the broken records, the personal triumphs, and — let's face it — the great crashes. Nobody wants to see an athlete get injured nor fall in his first 10 steps after training for eight years, but it happens and it will continue to happen.

Short-track speedskating is among those crazy winter sports where a crash can turn everything upside-down. Case in point, Apollo Ono. He was favored to win four golds this February and probably would have been well on his way until the last 25 meters of the 1,000-meter gold-medal race.

Ono and three other skaters went down, hard into a wall, to allow a last-place Australian earn his country's first gold medal in Winter Olympics history.

We may be in for another conspiracy theory after that one. When a crash like this takes place, judges usually call for a do-over. That hasn't happened yet. This may or may not be a coincidence, but the chief judge happens to be Australian.

Regardless, the media are already talking.

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On Friday night at the Olympic Medals Plaza, Smashmouth took the stage. The medal ceremonies for snowboard, luge and cross country competitions preceded the show.

On Saturday, country stars Brooks and Dunn visited the Salt Lake, performing their hit songs for the international crowd. Still due to light up the OMP post-ceremony stage is, among others, Nelly Furtado, Creed, 'N Sync and Train.

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Our jobs at the Games are to inform the crowds of other Olympic experiences around town. One that happened to catch my eye was the International Ice Carving Competition. Thirty teams of two battle for 20 intense ice-carving hours. With each team receiving four 1,000-pound blocks of ice to play with, the final results are a sight worth seeing.

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Our nightcap for Sunday is Khazakstan against Germany in women's hockey. It's the first visit to the Games for both, and I don't think there's been a victory for either side.

Maybe the two will cancel each other out and produce an exciting game. OK, so I'm an optimist.

From the land where the NHL's Stanley Cup is being held (temporarily), this is Jonathan Greco.

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E-mail Greco at jongreco@juno.com.