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SPORTS,
OLYMPICS SPECIAL
Open
Sesame
The Olympic
Games begin with a bang, a hint of controversy and the promise of unforgettable
drama
By
Rohit Brijnath in
Sydney
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| Between
Heaven and Earth: Ukranian gymnast Viktoriya Karpenko |
At
Sydney Airport, the terminal all dressed up and ready, the immigration
officer, a study in seriousness, questions him, "Athlete?" "Yes,"
he replies. The officer looks up, breaks into a grin as wide as the Great
Barrier Reef and drawls, "Welcome to Oz mate. Take care of the silver,
the gold's ours."
Everywhere
he goes, Leander Paes hears the same refrain. Volunteers say it, police
officers say it, the newspapers write it, but most of the time it comes
with a smile so disarming that every arrogance is instantly forgiven.
If Atlanta's
face was that of a grim old woman whose pension hasn't arrived, Sydney
is like a fresh young blonde on the day of her wedding. The stadiums,
all shiny contorted steel, glisten in the sunlight, 18,000 people line
up just to watch athletes practice, and everywhere there is the smell
of a spring romance.
It makes
everything bearable. The bus drivers have burnt their timetables; they're
never on time. The other day a driver sped past one contingent waving
merrily, blissfully unaware those were his passengers!
In the athletes'
village, where national flags lie still over window sills in bold proclamation
and the plaintive sound of an aboriginal playing the didgeridoo echoes
softly, there is a hush, a lull. An Uzbek runner skis on one of the 80
or so interactive video games at their disposal, others cram into the
IBM surf-shack, downloading their last e-mails of good luck. But not all
is good humour, for athletes' nerves are stretched so tight that Yehudi
Menuhin could have played an inspired concerto on them.
At the pool,
security guards removed the Canadian coach when the Australians objected
to his filming their water polo practice. The US track coach John Chaplin
flayed the design of Stadium Australia, saying the wind will become a
major factor, thus necessitating a change in his sprinters strategy. As
runners progress from the first round of heats towards the final, both
fastest timings and placement are taken into account to qualify. Chaplin,
unsure about the tricky winds, has asked his runners to focus only on
placement.
Drug
Busts and Impotent Officialdom: Most tragic of all, and reflective
of man's desire for Olympic glory, is that before a single medal could
be contested, 25 athletes had already tested positive. From a Taiwanese
lifter to a Canadian equestrian competitor, they've had their visas revoked,
their tickets cancelled, their bags packed for a humiliating return home.
Still Olympic officialdom is so impotent that it has turned its back on
the new test for EPO, a popular drug undetectable through urine. Researchers
discovered a way of detecting EPO used as far back as 25 days ago through
a blood test; that deterrent has been discarded in favour of a test that
only pinpoints usage in the past 72 hours.
Boxing,
a sport with the morals of a bordello, has made a superior use of technology.
Since judges are faster at extending their hands for bribes than Wyatt
Earp was with a six-shooter, now they will be filmed. If the competitors
have 900 cameras trained on them, the judges will have four, fixed on
the roof, each costing $40,000, to check whether they are scoring honestly.
Alas, there
were no cameras at the Indian section of the village to record a moment,
rare and poignant. Paes has finished breakfast, Dhanraj Pillai is on his
way there, and their paths collide. Maybe the last time they met was Atlanta,
but now Paes, his head freshly shaved, and Pillai the Ponytailed embrace
and hug and tease each other. The tennis player is 26, the hockey star
32, sporting relics in a sense, each at his third Games, possibly last
too. They will remember every step they take in Sydney, such is the way
with Olympic farewells.
In Pillai
you sense the desperation strongest, for his eyes have the look of a man
who would crawl 150 km on his knees on a dirt road to any temple if it
meant God would reward him with an Olympic medal. "I'm ready,"
is all he says, and there is no need to say more.
Paes and
Mahesh Bhupathi are less than ready. And in Paes' admission that "a
medal will take a miracle" it is acknowledged. After only four matches
played together, he says, "We play three games well, then three bad,
and though our communication is fine, our consistency isn't." Since
both are serving slower than before, they cannot overpower opponents as
they once did, reason why Paes explains, "We might have to change
strategy, maybe slowing the game down, spinning serves into corners and
blocking the angles." But for a team which thrived on speed to adjust
to a different rhythm in one week is like some flirtation with the improbable.
Earlier,
days before he carried the flag, Paes had said, "You know I've been
to the Olympics, carried the flag at the closing ceremony, won a bronze.
There are only two things I haven't done. Carry the flag at the opening
and win gold."
He's done
the first. Now he needs to show "the one billion I'm going to represent"
and one unknown immigration officer at Sydney airport that he's capable
of the second.
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