Editorial: Love-hate affair with Olympics

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

The modern-era Olympics almost always start off with some controversy -- and this year's Winter Games in Salt Lake City are no different. This week the International Olympic Committee created a dispute that temporarily overshadowed the Games and diverted attention away from where it belongs -- on the athletes. The IOC initially refused to allow U.S. athletes to carry the tattered flag from the World Trade Center during tonight's opening ceremony. Eventually a compromise was reached that will allow the flag to be part of the ceremonies, but the IOC had no business interfering in the first place.

It's not just the IOC showing poor judgment, though. While television viewers in nearly all the nation will see much of the Games as they unfold live, viewers in four Western states will have to settle for tape-delayed coverage. Instead of providing coverage from 5 p.m.-8:30 p.m. to coincide with the rest of the country, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington will have to wait until 7:30 p.m. NBC doesn't want to irritate its advertisers, who want the biggest audience possible to see their commercials in prime time, but tape delay kills one of sport's essential ingredients: suspense.

Yet, in spite of all the controversies that seem to always dog the Games, most of us still will hurry home from work every night so we won't miss any of the coverage. The opening ceremonies, as the athletes parade in to kick off the Games, are moving. Who will forget the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996 when Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame? Many of the Winter Games' events are exciting, including the sports that involve break-neck speeds, such as downhill racing and the luge, and those that require grace, such as figure skating. In addition, it's fun to see who will be the next athlete to break out of the pack, as Picabo Street did during the Nagano Games when she won the super giant slalom, and which athletes will break Olympic records.

At times it can be a love-hate relationship for those who enjoy watching the Olympics. Fortunately, even the IOC's ineptitude hasn't marred the heart of the Olympics -- the premier athletes from every corner of the globe give it their all to see who is the world's best. That is what it's all about -- and why we keep returning every four years.