Turin proving to be gnarly

The snowboarders have created success and frustration for the Americans who care.
By TIM DAHLBERG
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TURIN, Italy -- The band Small Beer was playing as the Dutch sang, cheered, jumped up and down and generally made a lot of noise at the speedskating 1,000. Real beer was flowing later at the Holland House where the celebration went on all night after Erben Wennemars won a bronze medal.
The American who won, meanwhile, couldn't even get a pat on the back from one of his teammates. And U.S. silver medalist Joey Cheek had to pledge his $15,000 Olympic reward to help impoverished children to even get his name mentioned.
The Olympics are all about how you look at them. One night at the speedskating arena said a lot about how success -- and failure -- on the ice and snow in Italy is viewed in different countries.
What's huge in Amsterdam draws a yawn in Texas, even with Houstonian Chad Hedrick providing part of the drama.
Shani Davis should have been a feel-good story about the first black athlete to win an individual gold in the Winter Olympics, but it was hard for anyone back home who watched his painful NBC interview to feel much kinship with him.
Numbers have plummeted
Those who were still watching, that is. Ratings on NBC have been dropping faster than insulted contestants on "American Idol."
And, with Michelle Kwan not around to anchor women's figure skating, the worst seems yet to come.
America loves its stars, but so far the country's biggest names have been its biggest busts. Bode Miller graced the cover of both Time and Newsweek magazines the same week and had a feature interview on "60 Minutes." But he's been missing in action in Italy, where he has been spotted in more bars than finish lines.
Kwan was supposed to be the star of the game's second week but made a graceful exit even before she could make a graceful appearance.
Hedrick began with one gold medal and talk of matching Eric Heiden's record of five, but is 0-for-2 since and may end up being remembered more for his sniping at Davis for being unpatriotic.
The Curl Girls couldn't roll the rock, Johnny Weir couldn't find either his bus schedule or his aura, and the Miracle on Ice came at the expense of the United States this time around when the U.S. women's hockey team was shocked by Sweden.
Phat air
Oh, yeah, and that snowboarder got really gnarly when she grabbed some phat air.
Hard to get mad at the snowboarders, though. They don't understand that a gold medal means more to most Americans than style points and bragging rights on the half-pipe.
Besides, without them, the United States wouldn't be having much of an Olympic moment at all.
Almost half the American medals so far -- six of 13 -- have been won in a sport that wasn't even part of the Olympics until 1998. Take them away and this team more resembles the American teams that won a total of 13 medals in 1994 and 1998 than the team that rocked Salt Lake City with a record 34 medals in 2002.
As an Olympics, Turin has been so-so for the United States.
As an X Games, it's been rad.
That's really what the Winter Games are becoming, anyway. They've been filled with so many new edgy sports to burn up TV time that it's hard to make comparisons to the days when skaters skated outside and skis were made of wood.
Limited gold and silver
So far, Americans have failed miserably in just about every sport but snowboarding and speedskating. Outside of those, they've won a grand total of two medals -- and only Ted Ligety's gold in the combined came in a traditional sport.
Americans are voicing their dissatisfaction these days the only way they know how -- by turning the channel. Amateur singers, it turns out, are far more interesting than flaky boarders or whiny skaters.
NBC has already had one night of the lowest rated Olympics since 1988, and things won't get any better this week when relative unknowns like Sasha Cohen and Emily Hughes can't be counted on to deliver the network the women's figure skating franchise that the games are built around.
That doesn't matter over at the Holland House, where the beer will flow, the band will play and everyone will sing if a Dutch skater even comes close to sniffing a medal.
Americans will hold off on any parties of their own.
They expect more to cheer about.
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