| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Equipment 'team' good as gold
Bloomberg News
PARK CITY — Behind a muddy snow bank far from the pageantry of the 2002 Winter Games, Chaka dons a gas mask before sprinkling a bit of white powder in his palm.
"This is very delicate work," he says, his voice muffled. "One mistake and we're toast."
The air is noxious from a heap of $400-a-pound bubbling wax that Chaka massages into the elaborately decorated wood and fiberglass plank he has balanced across his knees. Then he fine-tunes the bindings that a few hours later will whoosh snowboarder Kelly Clark to America's first gold medal at the Olympics.
So let's hear it for Michael Gardzina — a k a Chaka, the Mr. Goodwrench of Burton Snowboards — who otherwise hears cheers only from the athletes here in the Wasatch Mountains.
"Chaka and the others do the job," Clark declared after she captured the women's halfpipe gold medal on a Burton snowboard. "They make us keep going fast."
The media focus on the athletes competing for medals. Behind the scenes, Burton and other sporting-goods companies that spent millions linking their gear with the Olympics compete fiercely for oddly named techies like Chaka, Blotto and the Yelkster, all dedicated to keeping athletes on skis and skates.
"The equipment is computer-generated," said Jake Burton, founder and chief executive of Burton Snowboards, "but the technicians really give athletes peace of mind. They are critical."
Aside from foggy goggles and cracked boots, techies must cope with such emergencies as replacing Russian ski-suits that have been impounded by U.S. Customs or the frazzled psyches of athletes puzzled by snow temperature.
"If the equipment goes wrong, believe me the dog gets kicked," says Michael DeCesatro, sports and events manager for the French ski- and snowboard-maker Salomon SA, a unit of Germany's Adidas-Salomon AG.
DeCesatro has 36 techies taking care of 235 winter athletes using Salomon gear. Among them is Jason Yelk — "the boot guy," as the Yelkster calls himself.
"Buckle changes, binding modifications," he says, driving one of 25 Salomon station wagons filled with toolboxes, satchels of wax and wireless communications to another crisis. "You wouldn't believe the stuff we have to deal with."
At Park City Miners Hospital, now a museum that serves as the Adidas command center, chief troubleshooter Antje Koenig is supervising a group of technicians on a frantic apparel hunt.
Security-conscious customs agents who delayed the arrival of Russia's ski-jumping outfits are now also holding up delivery of Poland's gear — all of it specially tailored from high-tech fibers to cut through wind and enhance jumps off the big ramp.
Replacements are finally found, assuring that the Russian and Polish teams won't make their practice jumps in fleece sweatshirts and long johns.
Whatever the circumstances, Olympic athletes seem to take for granted they won't be left out in the cold. Koenig says there's always an athlete wandering a mountain in search of gear that will help him stay warm and go fast.
"India's only luger arrived in Salt Lake without any racing suit at all," she says. "He just showed up at our service cabin with his sled and in his street clothes. We gave him what he needed."
It's impossible to total the cost of supporting Olympic athletes, be they members of the Trinidad and Tobago bobsled team or gold medal Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann, says Adidas public relations director Peter Csanadi.
"Our goal is to put product on athletes," he says. "It doesn't matter if they win or lose. It's always good business to champion the underdogs." For example, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl in Adidas gear, he says.
While eight national teams arrived in Utah under contract to Adidas, Csanadi estimates that over half the 3,500 athletes and coaches here use at least one piece of Adidas gear.
"Shoes break and bindings fall apart, so we brought a lot of stuff for everybody," he says. "If an Olympian wears Adidas, we take care of that athlete."
Burton Snowboards' Blotto won't even address the economics of underwriting his firm's 14 Winter Games snowboarders.
"There's absolutely no point in sending riders out without tech support," says Blotto, also known as Dean Thomas Gray II, the Vermont-based company's global team manager. "The gold medal is the reward. That gold signifies Burton gear is the best."
Moments before Kelly Clark entered the starting gate for her snowboard ride, Chaka stuck a thermometer in the snow and said the pipe was primed for her to overcome first-round leader Doriane Vidal of France.
A bit of psychology? "I try to give all our athletes the advantage," said Chaka.
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February 20, 2002
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