Back to the Future?

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A couple of days ago, I read with interest a column by Linda Robertson of the Miami Herald in which she argues that figure skating in America desperately needs "an ice queen" to survive.

It is ironic, I suppose, that such a suggestion should be made this month, 20 years after the Tonya Harding–Nancy Kerrigan showdown in the Winter Games.

Tonya, as I observed last month, was part of a conspiracy to get Kerrigan out of the way so Harding could breeze to the championship in the Nationals and then — presumably — win the gold medal in Norway.

But the plot unraveled, and both were allowed to compete in the Winter Olympics. The buildup for that showdown had something for everyone — Kerrigan was the good girl, Harding was the bad girl. Ratings went through the roof. In spite of the assumptions of many, though, neither won the gold. Kerrigan took the silver.

The general mindset at the time was that women's figure skating was the domain of the Americans — not unlike the general belief that once accompanied women's gymnastics, that it was the domain of Russia and the communist–bloc countries.

Fast forward a couple of decades.

The American women haven't won a gold medal in figure skating since 2002. They didn't medal at all in the last Winter Games.

The general prospects for the 2014 Games don't look so good, either. It isn't all bad. Americans are favored in ice dancing, Robertson reports, and the U.S. team has a chance at a medal.

But "U.S. pairs will be outclassed and, most humbling of all, U.S. men's and women's skaters face the prospect of being shut out of the medals for the first time since 1936."

Robertson writes that dominance in skating is seen as a cyclical thing, and I suppose there is truth in that. Everything does seem to go in cycles, and perhaps this is a natural downturn for the Americans. That isn't good news for NBC, which holds the American Olympic broadcasting rights through 2020.

The Summer Games have a lot of appealing events for Americans — track and field, swimming, diving, volleyball, gymnastics — but the marquee event for the Winter Games is figure skating. Oh, sure, you have some who like to watch skiing and, for awhile, Olympic hockey thrived in traditionally non–hockey markets, but that faded after the U.S. hockey team failed to duplicate its gold–medal success in the 1980 Winter Games.

NBC needs women's figure skating to be what it once was — a ratings bonanza.

Securing the Olympics

When I was a boy, terrorists struck the Summer Olympics in Munich. Eleven members of the Israeli team and a German police officer were killed.

That event sent shock waves throughout the world, largely because it was unexpected. It took everyone by surprise.

But that was a different world, a world in which terrorist attacks didn't happen often.

It wasn't far removed from a time when airplane passengers didn't have to go through a series of security checks. They could simply walk onto their planes without their luggage or bodies being scanned for weapons or bombs. No one seems to have thought that a person might intend to seize control of a plane, maybe blow it out of the sky — at least, until people started hijacking planes.

Even then, no one seems to have imagined that a person might want to seize control of a plane with the specific intention of flying it into a building — at least, not until 19 terrorists did that very thing on Sept. 11, 2001.

Since then, America has been on alert at airports and on board airplanes. The Olympics came to Salt Lake City only a few months after the Sept. 11 attacks, and, with tens of thousands of participants and spectators visiting from other countries for two weeks, the world saw a model of security efficiency. Two other Winter Olympics — and three Summer Olympics — have been held since Sept. 11, and each has avoided a security catastrophe.

Americans, I have learned, tend to believe that, if they are acutely aware of something or diligent about something, the rest of the world is, too. Perhaps the last six Olympic Games have lulled Americans into a false sense of security, believing that each host country is just as serious about terrorism prevention as we are.

But that is a dangerous assumption to make in today's world.

And I am anxious about the Winter Olympics that officially get under way this weekend in Russia.

Kelly Whiteside wrote in USA Today this week that the appearance of tight security promotes a sense of comfort, but, as Caitlin Dewey and Max Fisher write in the Washington Post, reports of suicide bombers and online threats prompted a travel alert from the State Department. Doesn't sound to me like Sochi is very secure.

Most of the people with whom I have spoken in the last week or so agree with me — that a terrorist attack during the Olympics is likely.

I hope I'm wrong about that. I don't want to see any athlete or coach or spectator hurt or killed.

But if it happens, I am pretty sure I know what the reaction will be: Most people will be sad. Most probably will be angry. Most also probably will feel a sense of revulsion.

But few, if any, will be surprised.