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There's been some buzz here in Torino about whether the doping controversy surrounding the Austrian Nordic skiers will affect Salzburg's bid for the 2014 Winter Games. My gut response is: it can't help. In reports, Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency and an International Olympic Committee member, said the city has "taken a hit." But the first real indication that the scandal has had an averse affect would come at an IOC Executive Board meeting in late June when the first cut is made.
Currently, the executive board and an IOC-appointed working group are studying the bid cities' responses to a questionnaire assessing their ability to host an Olympics. (The six other cities: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Borjomi, Georgia; Jaca, Spain; PyeongChang, South Korea; Sochi, Russia; and Sofia, Bulgaria. You've just been dying to go to all of these places, haven't you?) But it's likely that any perceived sins wouldn't really be punished until later in the process, when IOC members take a closer look; the 2014 host will be picked in July 2007 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Yes, Guatemala City, Guatemala. By then, today's doping controversy may be mostly forgotten. (Vancouver, British Columbia, has already been chosen as the host of the 2010 Winter Games.)
At a press conference Thursday, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said that the controversy wouldn't hurt Salzburg: "The two issues are not necessarily related. In the bid they stated the full support of the IOC anti-doping policy." Raimund Fabi, a spokesman for the Austrian Olympic Committee, tells NEWSWEEK that the 2014 Games are "too far away" to be affected by current events. Which city will win? In a reader poll on GamesBids.com, an unofficial Olympic site, Salzburg is in fourth place with 13 percent. PyeongChang is the top pick with 29 percent of the vote; Sofia and Jaca (pronounced HA-ca) are tied for last with 6 percent, which is ridiculous because Jaca is so much fun to say.
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Co-Ed Curling? Ice skating aside, of all the Olympic sports that could be co-ed, curling seems the likely choice. It's a test of strategy, not strength -- and as curlers are sweeping, it would seem more natural to hear women yelling at men than dudes screaming at dudes.
Outside the Olympics, there is a co-ed curling movement in the United States; the mixed-team championships are being held at the end of March in Fairbanks, Alaska. (Act now; don't delay!) Liz and Tim, the parents of U.S. curlers Cassie and Jamie Johnson, were national mixed champions. There's "been a clamor for a while" to expand internationally, says Rick Patzke, U.S.A. Curling spokesman. It would take three years of international play to establish Olympic seeding, however. So to be ready for 2010, the World Curling Federation (WCF) would have to organize competitions for next year (if it followed the same procedures it used in advance of 2006). It's too late for that to happen -- plus, at this point, the World Curling Federation doesn't sanction mixed play.
That's something Brady Clark would like to change. Clark, 28, and his wife, Cristin, 35, have been national mixed champs three of the past four years. They're talking to curlers from other nations to organize a makeshift international mixed tournament with 10 teams. (They tried last year, but didn't allow the European duos enough lead-time to get to Rice Lake, Wis. This year's round robin will be held there or in Germany. "We're waiting for the guy who's in Germany to see if it's a realistic option," says Clark.) If they were able to get the tournament going, and it was successful, and the WCF were then to sanction mixed play, then, maybe, they'd have a shot at Olympic play.
"It's definitely on my mind," says Clark, a transportation analyst for an insurance company in Seattle. "That's my target date -- 2014." He's got a date in mind. Now all he needs is a place.
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