The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Justice is golden"
By Karen Rosen
Four days after they left the ice, Canadian pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier skated to the Olympic gold medal on a sea of paper.
The International Olympic Committee awarded them duplicate gold medals Friday because a French judge was suspended over unspecified "misconduct."
However, a victory ceremony next week can't duplicate the experience that Sale, 24, and Pelletier, 27, would have had if they had won the gold on the spot.
"I visualized my flag being in the middle and hearing my anthem," Sale said. "And we got cheated out of that, big time."
Rocky Mountain News
"IOC's golden compromise skates on thin ice"
Mike Littwin
And now, the gold medal for irony . . . Follow me on this one. Salt Lake City is caught cheating in its bid to get the Olympics. No one goes to jail. (There was an indictment. It was dismissed. It's now being appealed. It's more than you want to know.) In fact, the entire sordid story has been all but buried under an avalanche of good feeling.
But when the Olympics finally did get here, the Games' marquee sport has been dragged through its greatest scandal not involving a tire iron. And it's not only figure skating that loses. Are you with me? We now can guess how the Salt Lake Olympics will ultimately be remembered — for scandal piled upon scandal.
Cox News Service
"Salt Lake City vibrates with Olympic love"
By Rachel Sauer
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — How many ways are there to say, "I love you"? Te amo. Ich liebe dich. Je t'aime . . . Salt Lake City. Which is something I never, ever in a million years expected to say. In the summer of 1996 it was a city I couldn't wait to leave, the embodiment of everything I don't like about Utah. Monochromatic, I huffed. Small-minded. Provincial. Phony. Boring. (It never occurred to me then that the quality of a place depends more on me than on it.)
Salt Lake City, to me, was the urban equivalent of an annoying, know-it-all cousin who tattles and gets everyone else in trouble. So it was surprising last weekend when I stood on a downtown corner and got misty-eyed with love and admiration for Salt Lake City. The Olympics have done something to it. The city feels incredibly vibrant and colorful, with a visible pulse tapped into the beating heart of humanity.
