Word: winterizer
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...roundup of trouble makers. Soviet editorialists suggested an untoward affinity, even close links, between the L.A. protesters and the U.S. "ruling circles." Last week the Reagan Administration emphatically denied any affiliation. Balsiger had dispatched several letters and Mailgrams to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver last winter, urging that the Administration discourage the Soviet Olympic contingent from attending; in early January Deaver sent back a standard, innocuous reply, explaining that "the U.S. will welcome athletes from all nations." The only other connection, almost as tenuous, was a speech last March in Los Angeles by Assistant Secretary of State...
Neither side of the sporting world is respected by the other any more, or taken at its word. Many Westerners figure the Soviets fear Olympic drug testing and mass defections, or perhaps just decline to finish second again (as they did in Sarajevo last winter) to the G.D.R. Athletes are joining in the worn discussion of a permanent site in Greece, neglecting to consider who pays for pools and stadiums in use two weeks every four years. "Treat it like a sanctuary, as they did in Olympia," Diver Greg Louganis urges. "It was the Greek's form of worship...
...Arledge, go beyond the outlay for the Games. The network uses Olympic air time to preview its fall programming season and to reinforce its image as the No. 1 sports broadcaster. Attracting a large audience for the Summer Games grew all the more crucial when last February's Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, for which ABC paid $91 million, proved to be a ratings bust. Viewership for those telecasts, according to some advertising-industry estimates, was 25% below expectation, and the network was forced to repay shortchanged advertisers with free commercial spots later, some of them during the Summer Olympics...
...reason for this discrepancy has to do with the very size and importance of each of the Olympics. In numerical terms at least, the Winter Olympics pale in comparison to their summer sibling. Fewer athletes from fewer countries participate in few events. For many nations, the Winter Olympics simply do not carry the prestige of the Summer Games Ironically, this may be the Winter Olympics' saving grace Exactly because they are not a global media mega-event, the Winter Olympics avoid many of the political and commercial pressures that can turn an idealistic international sporting event into an ideological battleground...
...been greatly tarnished, they remain significant as an expression of international cooperation and individual courage. We can only hope that the leaders of Russia, the U.S., and other nations, seeing that the Summer Olympics cannot be manipulated for significant political gain, will leave them alone. Meanwhile their sidekick, the Winter Olympics, squeak on by content in and saved by their own limitations. While they may never play on as grand a stage as their summer counterpart, the Winter Olympics may prove a much longer running show...