The New York Times
"Drama and Scandal Make the Olympics"
By Serge Schmemann
SALT LAKE CITY — All this-the flag-waving, the human drama, the scandals big and little, are what make modern Olympic Games the Olympic Games, as much as the victories and defeats. The pairs-skating scandal will fade, and maybe already has. But it will not be the last scandal. The potent mix of glory, money and national pride will continue to spin off heroes and villains, dramas and scandals. And, just as surely, the purists will decry this as xenophobia, greed and the corruption of the ideals of ancient Olympia that inspired the good baron. Yet if truth be told, even those ancient Greek Games were banned 1,200 years later as a pagan, political spectacle.
Miami Herald
"New event: The price hike, and it's very steep"
By Dave Barry
PARK CITY — This quaint ski-resort village in the heart of the Olympic action has gone out of its way to make you, the visitor, feel right at home, assuming your home charges you $25 to park. You can also buy pizza from a sidewalk stand here for $5 a slice, and a bottle of genuine water for $4. The going price for air is $3 per breath.
I'm kidding, of course. Air is only $1.50 per breath. But I'm not kidding when I say the main Olympic event here appears to be the Retail Merchants' 50 Kilometer Price Hike.
Not that this has reduced the crowds. The main street of Park City is jammed day and night with thousands of people walking around in high-quality ski attire, as if at any moment they're going to hit the slopes. In fact, though, nobody here is skiing. . .
But everybody is buying the berets like crazy anyway, because . . . well, because everybody ELSE is buying them. People proudly wear their berets everywhere here, including, I bet, in the shower. When they leave Utah, they'll wear them home, where, at some point, they'll see themselves in the mirror. Then they'll take off their beret and never wear them again, except maybe on Halloween.
Los Angeles Times
"Sounds Like BCS: Bad Call for Skating"
By Mike Penner
SALT LAKE CITY — In a breaking news story that no one can make heads or tails of, the International Skating Union has proposed radical changes in its scoring system that could, depending on degree of difficulty, invalidate the past 94 years of Olympic figure skating results, make Olympic figure skating judging even more secretive and confusing than it already is, and turn the sport of Olympic figure skating into college football.
The Sydney Morning Herald
"And it's gold to Austria . . . er, Australia
By Roy Masters and Jacquelin Magnay
Alisa Camplin had seen snow only once before her 19th birthday. In the next eight years, she not only learnt how to ski but took on the daunting aerials event, and yesterday she soared to Australia's second Olympic gold medal in 48 hours — and the second of all time.
Camplin's gold, coming on top of Sunday's gold to speedskater Steven Bradbury, propelled Australia to 11th on the Winter Games medal table, with the same number of gold as the mighty Canadians and Dutch, and ahead of snow powers such as Sweden, Croatia, Poland and Austria.
