U.S. Team Has Had A Difficult First Week

TURIN, Italy, Feb. 18 -- The U.S. Olympic team's performance at these Winter Games has been punctuated by bloopers and breakdowns, some magnificent, some historic, some nearly tragic. Michelle Kwan bolted. Apolo Anton Ohno tripped. The U.S. women's hockey team lost. Bode Miller did not finish (twice). Star lugers crashed. A snowboarder showboated.

Johnny Weir lost touch with his inner peace.

Halfway through the Turin Olympics, the U.S. team has hung close to the world's winter sports powers at the top of the medal table but struggled to replicate the magic of its performance at an emotional 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, which took place just five months after the Sept. 11 attacks and drew consistently strong television audiences.

Four years later, television ratings are down, the medal count is down and sensational failures have soared. Perhaps worst for the United States, no superstar has emerged with a riveting story.

Saturday provided the now customary mix of medals and mishaps. Hours after Miller rode on one ski off the course of the Super-G final, once again failing to get to the bottom of a mountain, two Americans -- Shani Davis and Joey Cheek -- won the gold and silver in the 1,000-meter speedskating final. Later, Ohno, who fell in the semifinal of the short-track 1,500 early in the week, rebounded in the short-track 1,000, claiming the bronze.

Ohno hasn't created the same world-rattling drama he weaved in Salt Lake. Ohno, Kwan (who left Turin with an injury) and Miller (who has yet to win a medal) were once again expected to be medal-chasing, camera-attracting ambassadors of sport and drama. The Flying Tomato -- snowboarder Shaun White -- proved an engaging and endearing star attraction as he won a gold medal, but he competed in just one event, and his spotlight burned out quickly.

"The breaks aren't necessarily going our way yet," said Steve Roush, the U.S. Olympic Committee's chief of sport performance. "But they have a way of balancing out. At every Games, you can have all these projected superstars on the front end who are going to set the world on fire . . . but there's always been a star or two or three who's been created."

Roush and other U.S. Olympic officials say they remain optimistic. U.S. athletes are favored in perhaps a dozen events this week. The USOC still hopes to capture the overall medal count -- something it did not do even while setting a U.S. medal record in Salt Lake City. (Germany won 38 medals to the United States' 34.) Officials said they expected to endure some sort of post-host slump this year after benefiting from the comfort of a Games on home soil in 2002. Historically, nations that hold Winter Olympics have seen their medal tally drop off by 47 percent at the next Games, a figure that would translate to a drop-off of 16 medals here. The USOC never announced a medal target, but it clearly envisioned a figure closer to 34 than 18.

"We have a lot of athletes within reach of the podium," USOC CEO Jim Scherr said before the Olympics. "If we can capitalize on those performances . . . then we can maintain a large chunk of our performance from Salt Lake City and prove it wasn't a fluke."

Big medal tallies can help the USOC lure sponsors by providing evidence that their pledged millions not only will go to a worthy cause, but also will garner plenty of publicity. And while NBC shudders at the notion that its coverage is tinted red, white and blue, it surely appreciates opportunities to showcase American stars likely to generate a buzz among viewers.

That didn't happen last week, judging by the ratings. NBC is averaging a 12.3 rating, and if it slips under 12, the network will have to give its advertisers free "make-good" ads for failing to draw the audience it promised. (A ratings point represents 1,102,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 110.2 million TV homes).

"We've got the athletes in place," said Bill Marolt, president and CEO of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. "A lot of football games are won in the fourth quarter."