Chapter 167: Renewing Aquaintances

Saturday, the day after the opening ceremonies, was the day the Olympics began in earnest. It was also the first day of figure skating--the pairs' short program.

It was considered the most wide-open contest of all the figure skating events. The field was led by the defending Olympic champions and the home country favorites, Jenny Sellers and Denis Poulin. However, they'd had a rough year. They'd lost the last World Championship to Andrea and Brett, and had had a rough time at December's Grand Prix final, finishing only fourth.

Brett and Andrea were the defending World Champions, but had also had problems at the Grand Prix, losing to the young Czech pair of Trogonickova and Kepul. Another impressive pair were the young Russians, Yaskovarina and Chebinskiy, who had won the bronze medal at the Grand Prix. And, then there were the Chinese, Yin and Li. They'd had a disastrous Grand Prix, but were the defending World bronze medallists and couldn't be counted out.

Any of these pairs could seize the moment in the short program. However, the initial gauntlet was thrown down by none of these. Skating early in the order was a second-tier German pair, Dagmar Lachen and Johann Schusster. They came out and laid down an absolutely flawless short program. With all of the big guns yet to come, their marks were a little lower than might have been expected--but the top teams were going to have to be excellent. The room was there, but the Germans had set a high standard.

The Chinese couldn't meet it. The problems from the Grand Prix reasserted themselves, and Yin and Li found themselves well behind the Germans. The next of the pre-contest contenders to skate were the Russians. They were good, but had a few minor flaws. They defeated the Chinese handily, but were behind the Germans.

The final group contained the Big Three. Andrea and Brett were the first to go, and they nailed everything in their program. Skating with verve and flair, they went to first place on every judge's card. The next up were the Canadians, under extreme pressure for being the home country's best gold medal hope in figure skating. They responded to it wel-l-except for one flaw. Denis two-footed the landing on their side by side triple toes. Minor, but since Andrea and Brett had skated perfectly, it was enough to put them in second.

Then came the Czechs, on a roll after their Grand Prix win. And they were wonderful. As flawless and Andrea and Brett, with a style all their own. It was as close as it gets, a 5-4 split, but they moved into first place. Andrea and Brett were in second and the Canadians in third. The Russians and Germans, fourth and fifth, would join the top three in the final group for the free skate, two days hence.

Sunday, Sophia and Warren gathered Betsy up and headed to the same place they had found themselves four years before--the ski slope, for the men's downhill.

And, to their delight, they found themselves again in the midst of a bunch of Austrians.

They had kept in contact with their old friends Otto and Wilhelm, and were pleased to find them here. "The last time we talked, you weren't sure if you were going to make it," Sophia told them.

"Right. Well, it's harder, going to Canada instead of Switzerland. It costs more. So, we decided to make this the family vacation for this year," Otto told them, smiling. He introduced Sophia and Warren to his wife, and Wilhelm introduced his. All four fawned over Betsy.

"So, Gerhard Weichenbauer retired," Warren said, "so I suppose this is the Ingo Buell fan club now?"

"Got that right," Otto said. "It's gonna be a battle between him and your American guy, Alan Zimmer. They've been trading the World Cup Downhill championship back and forth since the last Olympics."

"Yep, I know. Go Alan!" Warren joked.

They chatted easily as the first couple of skiers came down the slope. Then it was Ingo Buell's turn. He skied impressively, and easily went into first place, to the delight of the Austrian contingent.

Three skiers later, Alan Zimmer roared down the slope. At the first checkpoint, he was very close to Buell's time. At the second checkpoint, he was even closer. He came flying down the final stretch, and crossed the finish line. Everyone looked up at the clock, and then it flashed: he'd defeated Buell by half a second. The large American contingent, including Warren and Sophia, went nuts.

"Dat guy win?" Betsy asked.

"Not yet, sweetheart, but he's in first place," Sophia told her.

"Ah, well," Otto laughed. "Can't win 'em all. Zimmer ran an excellent race."

They kept watching. Nobody else approached Buell or Zimmer's time. Otto, a pretty big guy, had put Betsy on his shoulders, to Betsy's delight.