At The Winter Olympics

SECOND THOUGHTS

Let the Games begin again:

?They should not have been spread out over three weekends and 16 days. Even ABC, which is broadcasting 94� hours of the Olympics for its $309 million, admits the Games are too long. But Dick Pound, an IOC member from Canada, argues that the full 16 days allowed by the Olympic charter are needed to meet scheduling demands. "We play our first hockey game just after the opening ceremonies and our last just before the closing ceremonies," he says. Some athletes also like the length. Said one whose competition ended last Thursday, "Now I have a week and a half to party before I go out into the real world." But Sarajevo did just fine with 13 days in 1984, and 1992 host Albertville, France, should take note.

?Canada Olympic Park, site of the ski jumps and bobsled and luge runs, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The chinook wreaked havoc with the scheduling at COP, which is located in a veritable wind tunnel just outside of Calgary. Athletes and spectators alike were inconvenienced. "The people who made the decision to build the jumps didn't know anything about ski jumping," said Canadian club coach Tom Thompson, who tested the jumps for the competitors. Thompson thought the jumps should have been in the mountains near Canmore, the Nordic site, which is about an hour west of Calgary. At least wind screens should have been erected.

?Too many Olympic tickets were reserved for VIPs—Very Inconsiderate People—who never bothered to show up at events. Rows of seats lay empty even as would-be ticket buyers were being turned away at the door.

Still, Calgary more than made up for the problems with unbounded cheer. Citizens kept apologizing for the warm weather and lack of snow, which were hardly their fault. "We may not get the Winter Olympics again," said Calgary fireman Ed Look, "but we might just get the Summer Games."

THE ENDANGERED EAGLE

They wrote songs for him. Johnny Carson wanted him. The British Olympic Committee had to detach two press aides just to handle his interview requests. "Ed-die, Ed-die," the people shouted everywhere he went.

By now the whole world knows about Eddie Edwards, Eddie the Eagle, the bespectacled, 24-year-old plasterer from Cheltenham, England, Great Britain's only ski jumper. Ski plummeter might be a better description. In the 70-meter jump on the second day of competition, the Eagle flew 180 feet on both his jumps, as compared with gold medalist Matti Nyk�nen's best of 294 feet. "The most important thing for me was to survive," Eddie said, and everyone laughed. Well, almost everyone.

While Eddie and his fans waited in breathless anticipation for his attempts in the 90-meter competition this week, the sport's officials were attempting to discourage him. They were especially afraid for him given the chinooky conditions at Olympic Park, which postponed ski jumping for several days. When a reporter pointed out that not competing could cost the Eagle a million dollars in endorsements, Rob McCormack, the chief of competition, said, "We also may be saving him from two broken arms and two broken legs."