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American Morning

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Visits Olympic Athletes

Aired February 20, 2002 - 07:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A boost from the boss for members of the U.S. military assigned to Olympic security. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is in Salt Lake City. He spent some time yesterday with the athletes in the Olympic Village.

And Carol Lin, of course, is also standing by in Salt Lake City this morning with an update for us now -- good morning, Carol. What's going on there? Probably not much at this hour.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not much at this hour, but check out the defense secretary. You know, the picture that you have of him meeting and greeting some 4,600 troops that are stationed here for security is his official capacity. But really, let me show you some of the photographs that really tell the real story. He is here, frankly, for the sports. He attended speed skating yesterday. He went to the bobsledding competition. He was at figure skating last night.

Paula, we learned that the defense secretary is an absolute sports nut and, in fact, when he was enlisted, he actually tried out for the special military program that trains its own Olympic athletes. And he was here to talk to some 12 members of active military who are actually competing for the United States on the bobsledding and the biathlon competitions.

So we heard also that, you know, he was a real sports nut when he was in college. He was known as, well, it sounds like a crazy nickname, but it was one handed rummy, which meant that he could do more one handed pushups than anybody else in his fraternity.

So what did I learn about the defense secretary? He just loves athletes, loves sports.

ZAHN: Who knew?

LIN: Yes, who knew?

ZAHN: I imagine the security must have been pretty intense.

LIN: Yes. It doesn't get much more intense than it already was. In fact, they actually reduced the number of military personnel here, as some of the competitions have wrapped up. So they've reduced it about 600. But still security extremely tight. And they've been actually very secretive about his schedule. I don't know if it's because they didn't want us knowing that he was really here to have a good time or if it was really a security precaution.

ZAHN: Last night a big night for ice skaters. Were you able to see Michelle Kwan's performance, who now is leading the pack?

LIN: You know, I -- yes, first place. We just missed it because we were in edit on a different piece. But I called a girlfriend of mine who was actually at the arena at the time and she said the crowd went wild. I mean Michelle Kwan, a near perfect performance, 5.9s across-the-board for presentation in a fabulous $20,000 Vera Wang (ph) costume custom made for her.

Michelle Kwan has said all along that she's going to be a different kind of skater. She's just going to be here to have fun. She's not going to hold back like she did in '98. She's just going to rip and let loose and let be what it's going to be. She wants that gold. It's the one thing that she doesn't have from a competitive standpoint.

ZAHN: It's interesting to this day how troubled she seems to be by not taking home the gold the last time. I guess she's analyzed the videotape endlessly to try to figure out what she could do differently this time. Well, she certainly showed us last night.

LIN: Yes.

ZAHN: Let's move on to the very surprising gold medal win of a bobsled team that had gotten no notice at all going into these Olympics, so to speak.

LIN: Yes, no notice at all because these two women were actually not even in medals contention. There were other women, American women who were expected to win. But Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers really pulled it out in the end. They won the gold. This is the first medals that the United States has won in bobsledding since 1956 and it's the first time that women have actually competed in this event, Paula.

And they pulled it out because, you know, the expected winners, Jean Racine, Gea Johnson, Jen Davidson, lots of problems over the past year in competition, infighting, back fighting amongst all of them and injuries. And in the end it was the most united team, Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers, who won the gold. I mean it was really about teamwork and pulling through in the end. A nice surprise.

ZAHN: There was so much, you know, there was so much talk about all the bad karma surrounding Jean Racine and her decision to dump her teammate, who she had competed with for so many years.

LIN: Yes.

ZAHN: And I guess people will be analyzing her decision...

LIN: It got pretty ugly.

ZAHN: ... to change out and, of course, her teammate pulled her hamstring and that certainly did not help, did it, Carol? LIN: No, it didn't. But, you know, hooray for Vonetta Flowers. She's the first African-American woman to win a medal in a Winter Olympics competition. So a lot of good news coming out of it. But you're absolutely right. I mean the criticism of Jean Racine was that she wanted that gold so badly she was willing to do anything, including stab her own teammate in the back and fire her and replace her with Gea Johnson. But in the end, you know, injuries, I think Gea Johnson pulled a hamstring and it just didn't work for these women.

But they rooted and they were really happy for the American team that did win. So, you know, in the end I think things are calming down.

ZAHN: OK, Carol Lin, thanks so much. See you in the next hour.

LIN: Sure.

ZAHN: In just about five minutes or so we hope to be interviewing the Lithuanian ice dancing team who now is saying that it believes the judging was rigged. They want a medal, too. Their legal fight coming up.

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