Olympic Village

NEW YORK -- The head of security for the U.S. Olympic team says athletes should not be afraid to wear the red, white and blue on the streets of Athens this summer. In the strongest statement of support for security preparations to date, Larry Buendorf and other U.S. Olympic officials said yesterday that athletes should feel free to leave their guarded compound and tour the city like other athletes and spectators. Their comments came at a briefing for reporters just 91 days before the start of the Summer Games.

The revised Washington-Baltimore bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games won praise yesterday from the head of a United States Olympic Committee evaluation team, at the close of a whirlwind visit to help decide whether the bid will be one of two finalists. "Washington enhanced its position from where it was," said Charles H. Moore, chairman of the 2012 Bid Evaluation Task Force, which made stops in Washington and College Park. "If we were scoring today, we would score it higher than we would have before.

THE MOST remarkable statistic to come out of the Sydney Olympics? Not the 15 world records that fell during a furious week of swimming. Not the ratings for NBC's telecast, lowest in 32 years. Instead, it was the fact that 70,000 condoms were distributed in the Olympic Village. In fact, Ansell International, which supplied free condoms, had to make an emergency supplemental shipment of 20,000 before the games ended Sunday. The most wonderful surprise at the Sydney Games was not the upset of Russian wrestling champion Alexander Karelin, undefeated in 13 years, by American farm boy Rulon Gardner.

SYDNEY, Australia - James Carter listened for boos and jeering whistles when he was introduced to the crowd before the final of the men's 400-meter hurdles at Olympic Park last night. "I was hoping I wouldn't hear anything," he said. He didn't. The packed house of 110,000 at Olympic Stadium barely responded to his name. It meant he had survived the biggest mistake of his life - barely. "I just don't want people to have that as their image of me," said Carter, a Baltimore native who went to Mervo.

SYDNEY, Australia -- Today's cinema schedule lists an 11 a.m. showing of "Alien," with subtitles in Hungarian. On one of the pool tables, a man from Moldavia is teaching a girl from Bangladesh how to break. A large Cuban flag hangs from a balcony near the main entrance. Complete with a view of the flame atop the 110,000-seat Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Village is where approximately 15,000 athletes and coaches from around the world have gotten their mail this month. The 24-hour dining hall can seat nearly 5,000.

You want to bet against him, bet against him. The new football stadium at Camden Yards is testament to John Moag's fighting spirit. And this time, he is not alone.Moag is merely one of the heavy hitters trying to secure the 2012 Olympics for Baltimore and Washington. Chances are it will never happen. But the last time people bet against Moag, he stole the Cleveland Browns."Objectively, in a lot of respects, I'm more confident about this," said Moag, one of the Baltimore board members appointed by Mayor Schmoke to join the consolidated organizing committee preparing the Olympic bid."

NAGANO, Japan -- Maybe next time, the U.S. men's ice hockey professionals should just stay home.They've certainly done their best to ruin the first Olympic tournament to include National Hockey League players, an international breakthrough for the sport.After their elimination by the Czech Republic, the Americans capped off a week of questionable conduct and embarrassing play by trashing their quarters in the Olympic Village, U.S. Olympic Committee officials said.In 1980, ABC's Al Michaels shouted, "Do you believe in miracles?"

NAGANO, Japan -- They have shopped. They have practiced. They have tried to gain Olympic experiences even as their every moves have been cataloged and noted by judges, parents and the media.And now, they are ready to take over the Winter Olympics.Tomorrow, Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski will finally grab center stage with the start of the women's figure skating short program.All other competitors, even all other sports in Nagano, may now be dwarfed by two American teen-agers.Rarely, have two young Olympic performers faced such pressure or scrutiny.

NAGANO, Japan -- His Olympic credential reads, "Albert Grimaldi, Athlete, Monaco." It hangs from his neck, along with his room key from the Olympic Village.You can almost see those wacky snowboarders bowing and shouting, "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"Prince Albert rules.This is his fourth Olympics, matching the total of "King" Carl Lewis. Once again, he's competing in bobsled, staying in the athletes' village, acting like a regular guy.The prince might not party with Alberto Tomba, but he considers him a friend.

For hard-core, meat-and-potatoes sports fans, the Olympics, summer or winter, are more staged than the kind of athletic competition they're used to, what with the spectacle of the opening and closing ceremonies, sports they hardly see and athletes they couldn't pick out of a lineup.And most Olympic television coverage, regardless of where the Games are staged, comes through the magic of videotape, which is antithetical to the live manner in which sports fans have been conditioned to expect their sports fix.That's why it was so disheartening during the first night of Nagano competition that bad weather at the men's downhill skiing race knocked out one of the only three scheduled activities that will be shown live in prime time, with Friday's opening ceremonies and the women's downhill on Friday this week being the others.