JOE POSNANSKI Olympics are in the eye of the beholder

TURIN, Italy -- The medals mean something different to each of them. To skater Sasha Cohen, the silver means falling and also getting back up. To snowboarder Rosey Fletcher, the bronze is magic. For skier Ted Ligety, the gold is the biggest charm in a charmed life.
They all have their own feelings about their medals, just as everyone left these Olympics in Turin with different feelings about the Games. These have been a confusing Olympics. Even people in Turin seemed conflicted. The city hoped the Games would revitalize the city after the devastating Fiat plant closing. And certainly millions of people around the world learned about Turin. They saw the San Giovanni Cathedral where the Shroud is kept. They heard about the city's brilliant history with art and chocolate.
Still, this is working class city, and everywhere you went you heard a mixture of Olympic pride and traffic complaints.
Back in the States, the reaction was no less confusing. Prime time ratings were way down the Games were trounced by "American Idol" -- but counting cable coverage more people watched these Olympics than ever before. The U.S. had, by far -- by FAR -- the most successful foreign Winter Olympics ever, and yet the overwhelming impression seemed to be that America flopped. The new sports that were supposed to appeal to the kids (snowboarding, snowboard cross, aerials, etc.) did not seem to spark much passion, while an ancient sport, curling, was one of the toughest tickets at the Olympics.
There is a seven-hour time difference between Turin in Middle America. And it seems like these Olympics never quite got over the jet lag.
More meaning
What does a gold medal mean?
At his father's funeral, track and field legend Carl Lewis took the gold medal he won in the 100-meter dash and placed it in his father's hand as the casket closed.
Gold medalist: Joey Cheek, long track speedskating, 500 meters.
Nobody knew exactly what to say when Cheek, after winning his surprise gold medal, promptly announced he was giving the $25,000 winnings to "Right to Play," an organization that helps children across the world.
Athletes give money to charity all the time, but there was something about this that made you just want to go hug Cheek. American needed him. The U.S. women's hockey team would lose to Sweden, and its most prominent player, goalie Chanda Gunn, refused to shake hands with the victors. Aerial skier Jeret Peterson, who is hoping to use his Olympic fame to get himself a spot on "The Apprentice," would get sent home after slugging a friend. Gold medalists Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick would engage in a silly two-week feud that made both of them look bad.
And here was Cheek, a former in-line skater from North Carolina, who decided to chase a speed skating dream. He held off on college, even though he graduated from high school with honors and had an SAT score he calls "north of 1400." He trained intensely. He won gold when nobody expected it. "It's miraculous," he said.
And then he talked about giving his money to "Right to Play."
He talked about going to the Sudan to help people there.
He talked about going back to college and entering a new stage of his life.
He said: "After years of sacrifice so I can be the best, I think it's imperative for me or anybody else ... to reach out a hand to somebody else."
That's a gold medalist.
Uncertainty
The uncertainty of these Olympics began before the Games even began, with the simple question of what to call the city. Turin? Torino? People were angry on both sides of the name. On the one hand, the city's Italian name is "Torino," so there were those who felt it pompous and downright unfriendly to tinker with that. On the other hand, there has never been quite the same tidal wave of people fighting to call Moscow "Moskva," Rome "Roma", Vienna "Wien" or Munich "Muenchen."
NBC settled on Torino, because it rolled off the tongue, but the decision did not help the nightly ratings. Neither did the Bode Miller's world class flop. Miller, the most hyped American athlete coming into these games, was supposed to be a medal threat in all five skiing disciplines. He posed for all the magazine covers. He said outrageous thing on "60 Minutes." He signed his big money deal with Nike.
He came away with zero gold medals, zero silver medals, zero bronze medals, two disqualifications, and one ankle injury from when he was playing basketball in the Athlete's village. All along, he hardly seemed to care. Twice he was spotted out on the town late at night, including the night before the biggest skiing event of the games, the men's downhill.
The big name disappointments led people to believe that somehow America was flailing at these Games, but that is not true. The most medals the U.S. had ever won at the Winter Olympics not counting the last games at home in Salt Lake City -- was 13. The U.S. won 25 medals and nine were gold. Chad Hedrick and Apolo Anton Ohno became only the third and fourth Americans to win three medals in one Winter Olympics. Ligety became the first American skier to win a gold in alpine combined.
The U.S. curling team won bronze, America's first Olympic medal in the sport. Ben Agosto and Tanith Belbin won silver, the first American ice dancing team to win a medal since 1976. And so on.
Defining silver
What does a silver medal mean?
Jerry Seinfeld: "I think I have a problem with that silver medal. If you win gold, great, you win bronze, at least you got something. But if you get it silver it's like, 'Congratulations, you almost won. You are the No. 1 loser. Nobody lost ahead of you."'
Silver medalist: Lindsey Jacobellis, snowboard cross.
She should have won gold, but it was Jacobellis' silver that made people at the Olympics ask what winning really means. Jacobellis was way ahead in her race. All she needed to do was make her last jump and slide over the finish line. Instead, she put a little extra flair in that last jump "I just wanted to thank the crowd," she would say and she fell. She got up, tried to get to the finish line, but by then it was too late for gold. She had showboated her way to silver.
At first -- either because of embarrassment of bad coaching -- she tried to cover up. Jacobellis said that she had tried to grab her snowboard to stabilize herself. Later, she admitted that she had just been trying to have fun. "Snowboarding is fun," she explained.
Like everything else at these Games, nobody seemed quite sure what to make of it. Some wrote and said that this was a sign of the times, with all these showboating athletes doing their touchdown dances. Some talked about it being characteristic of our American need to show off. And some thought it was no big deal, just a snowboarder showboating a a little too much at the finish line. That's what snowboarders DO. The sport is showboating.
Analyzing bronze
What does a bronze medal mean?
In Salt Lake City, Chris Klug won a snowboarding bronze medal 19 months after he had a liver transplant. He was asked if he would trade it for gold. At first he said yes. Then he smiled and said he would not trade it for anything in the world.
Bronze medalist: Toby Dawson, freestyle skiing, moguls.
He was born in South Korea and was found on the front steps of a police station. There was no note. He was taken to orphanage, and when he was 2 he was adopted by a couple in Vail, Colo., Deborah and Mike Dawson. They called him "Toby" and, like everyone else growing up in Vail, he loved to ski.
What does it mean
So what does it all mean? There are those who look at the low ratings and apparent apathy and say that the Winter Olympics are obsolete. And there are others who see the world came together for a sporting competition -- the United Nationas called an Olympic Truce -- and say the Olympics are bigger and more important than ever.
I don't know. Tell you what: For the first time this year, the Olympic medals had a hole in them. Did you see those? The design was supposed to symbolize the Italian piazzas the plazas that towns are built around.
Anyway, some thought these were the most beautiful medals ever made. And others thought they looked like a compact disc. "I haven't tried to put it in my CD player," German Nordic combined gold medalist George Hettich said.
See, it's like everything else at these Olympics. It's all how you look at it.
XJoe Posnanski is a columnist for the Kansas City Star.