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CNN Saturday Morning News

Winter Olympics Kick Off With Fireworks, U.S. Patriotism

Aired February 09, 2002 - 08:05   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The 19th Winter Olympic Games have begun. They kicked off in Salt Lake City with a dazzling display of fireworks and moving tributes to America's patriotism. The opening ceremony drew chants of approval from U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIERS: USA! USA! USA!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Blue eyes, they say. Troops watching the telecast in Kandahar chanted "USA!" as well during the ceremony and they stood at attention when the "Star Spangled Banner" was sung. The opening ceremony paid tribute to the spirit of America and the heroes and victims of the September 11 attacks.

CNN's Carol Lin joining us live from Salt Lake City with a look at some of the moving moments from the ceremony -- Carol, I assume you were up late, right there in the front row, having a great time watching it. It really was quite a pageant and the fact that that tattered flag from ground zero appeared, that was a particularly poignant moment, wasn't it?

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was really amazing to see, especially after so much political debate about whether a political symbol should take place at these Winter Games. A lot of concern by the international community that else would become the patriot games. But it turned out to be a very unifying moment, I thought, personally. I mean before a crowd of 55,000 people in Rice-Eccles Stadium. The honor guard of a group of athletes and police and firefighters brought this flag into the Rice-Eccles Stadium and there was an absolute hush amongst the crowd as they took in that moment.

The flag, as you know by now, is going to be raised over the Olympic Games and it will stay flying for as long as the fabric of that flag can withstand the elements out here. It really officially ended, I think, the debate over nationalism and the flag's role because so many people, including the president of the International Olympic Committee, said that 80 countries were affected by the World Trade Center attack and everybody was united in that moment of seeing this flag fly over the proceedings here.

Of course, a big moment, as you just mentioned earlier, was the lighting of the Olympic torch. And, you know, they called it the miracle on ice back in 1980 and that's what they're hoping for right here in the city of Utah during these Winter Games. The 1980 U.S. men's hockey team actually had the privilege of lighting the cauldron. The flame was brought up the stairs by Picabo Street and hockey player Cammi Granato and handed off to the hockey team captain of 1980, Mike Eruzione, who, as he did at the 1980 games when he accepted the gold medal for his team, brought up his team members together and joined in this act of patriotism.

And what a great moment it was, too, because it symbolizes the eternal hope that these Winter games represent, a big surprise for everybody. It was actually a decision made by the Salt Lake organizing president, the Olympic Committee president here, to have the 1980 hockey team do it. He decided it back in August and then he kept to the decision even after the September 11 attacks.

And Miles, I want to show you something here. You represented it earlier, I think, but the big fireworks display that culminated, we've got a still photo of it, Miles. And if you're wondering why we're showing you a still photo of fireworks, it's because well, as you know, another network owns the rights to the Winter games. They paid a half a billion dollars for those rights. We never thought in a million years that those rights would extend to the sky, but they did. They weren't, none of us were allowed to actually shoot those fireworks displays, so we've got a lovely still photo to share with you.

Did you see the fireworks last night, Miles?

O'BRIEN: I was sleeping, Carol, I've got to admit. I apologize. But I've go to tell you that other network -- we won't tell you who it is, but its initials are NBC -- that other network this morning, we came in this morning to watch the ceremonies, or so we thought, because we were watching the West Coast feeds here in the newsroom. We have all the feeds here, folks. It's kind of fun.

LIN: Right.

O'BRIEN: And I walked in and it said "live" in the upper left hand corner. And I said boy, that is a long opening ceremony. But apparently they were spoofing folks in other time zones by telling them it was live when it really wasn't.

LIN: Oh, yes.

O'BRIEN: You know, I've got to tell you, though, that deciding how to light the cauldron has become a really almost impossible act to follow. You had Muhammad Ali here in Atlanta.

LIN: Yes, it's an Olympic sport.

O'BRIEN: The archer in Sydney. But that was a spectacular moment there, wasn't it?

LIN: Yes, it was. I mean everybody was wondering who would be the one symbol of, you know, what these games represent this year, especially after the September 11 attacks. I was actually predicting last night, you're not going to believe this, but I was on an AOL chat on behalf of CNN and I was predicting that it would be more than one person, because I don't think any one person could actually embody all that they wanted to make as a statement here at these games.

O'BRIEN: Oh, absolutely. And I mean that moment, you know, really will, is unsurpassable, that moment in 1980. And really, you know, you look at the hockey team now, it's NHL guys. There'll never be another miracle on ice like we saw in 1980. So it's a great moment and I thought it was a great, a fitting tribute to all that.

All right, Carol Lin...

LIN: But Miles, never say never.

O'BRIEN: It just is not the same when you have pros doing it. I'm sorry, I hate to be down on the Olympics, but...

LIN: Oh, that's a whole other debate. We'll have to...

O'BRIEN: ... there was something magical about these guys, you know, just beating this -- of course there was a cold war subtext to it all. We'll go into it a little bit later because Carol is coming back in about an hour and 20 minutes.

LIN: OK.

O'BRIEN: We can bat around this whole issue of amateurism if you like. She'll be taking your e-mails and phone calls. And once again that e-mail address is wam@cnn.com.

Carol, we'll see you in a bit.

LIN: OK.

O'BRIEN: Stay warm.

The Winter Games will feature 17 days of competition among athletes from 77 nations and this week CNN's "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" takes a look at some of the most intriguing people to watch. One of them is a snowboarder, Chris Klug, who will be competing for gold after surviving a fight for his life.

CNN's Mark Viviano has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK VIVIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's easy to see why many eyes will be on the Chris Klug this winter. The 29-year-old snow boarder has overcome more than a slalom hill to prepare for this Olympics.

CHRIS KLUG: I spent most of last summer on the waiting list waiting for a liver transplant. I was diagnosed nine years ago with PSC, primary sclerosing cholangitis. It's a very rare liver condition. VIVIANO: The Colorado native had been on the waiting list for three and a half years. His snow boarding began to suffer.

KLUG: I started to feel some of the adverse effects of it, some of the side effects, flu-like symptoms, elevated temperature and just sort of loss of appetite. I was really struggling keeping the weight on and obviously in downhill snow boarding, just pure physics, it pays off to be a little heavier. That was tough.

VIVIANO: Klug finally got a new liver. It was a perfect match. In seven weeks he was back out on the snow and only four months later competing on the World Cup circuit.

KLUG: You know, on that Olympic course here I'll be a little jittery and probably get a few butterflies and stuff. But, you know, it's nothing like facing possibly not surviving a liver transplant and battling for your life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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