02-14-2006, 09:00 PM
I know what you mean. I too have fond memories of the 2002 Olympics. I even have a fishing related Olympics story.
In 2002, I lived in Las Vegas, but my extended family lives here, so we came up for a week and watched some of the events, and stayed with my parents. On one of the days when we weren't going to an event, I went and satisfied an ice fishing craving I had and fished Pineview. Shortly after I had set up on the ice and found some willing perch, I see these guys sweeping off a section of ice nearby. They soon were done, and shortly thereafter a bus pulls up and the Danish and Russian curling teams arrive and started curling. They had already been eliminated from the official competition, but just wanted to play a "friendly" game on Pineview and did so. The Danes could speak very good English, and were cool to talk with. One guy was even a bit of an angler himself. They gathered quite a crowd and had a great time. Shortly afterwards, another set of minivans pulled up and out came these reporters with their cameramen. They made a beeline to us ice fishermen and started interviewing myself and 2-3 guys near me. There were 4-5 sets of reporters and they also for the most part were very nice. There was a reporter for the NBC Today show (Bloom) with them and we talked a little hockey. (It was
for me to hear that he died in Iraq a couple years later.) There was one crew however that was out to do a "redneck-Utahn-who-doesn't-know-the-Olympics-are-going-on" story, that came by. He was quite condescending when he talked and filmed and didn't really find out that I was neither a Utahn (at the time) and that I had in my wallet 2 tix for the men's hockey quarterfinals for the next day. He then gave me a small pin and said "here, you now have something to remember the Olympics with" I still have it next to my "jello" pin. Great times!
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In 2002, I lived in Las Vegas, but my extended family lives here, so we came up for a week and watched some of the events, and stayed with my parents. On one of the days when we weren't going to an event, I went and satisfied an ice fishing craving I had and fished Pineview. Shortly after I had set up on the ice and found some willing perch, I see these guys sweeping off a section of ice nearby. They soon were done, and shortly thereafter a bus pulls up and the Danish and Russian curling teams arrive and started curling. They had already been eliminated from the official competition, but just wanted to play a "friendly" game on Pineview and did so. The Danes could speak very good English, and were cool to talk with. One guy was even a bit of an angler himself. They gathered quite a crowd and had a great time. Shortly afterwards, another set of minivans pulled up and out came these reporters with their cameramen. They made a beeline to us ice fishermen and started interviewing myself and 2-3 guys near me. There were 4-5 sets of reporters and they also for the most part were very nice. There was a reporter for the NBC Today show (Bloom) with them and we talked a little hockey. (It was
for me to hear that he died in Iraq a couple years later.) There was one crew however that was out to do a "redneck-Utahn-who-doesn't-know-the-Olympics-are-going-on" story, that came by. He was quite condescending when he talked and filmed and didn't really find out that I was neither a Utahn (at the time) and that I had in my wallet 2 tix for the men's hockey quarterfinals for the next day. He then gave me a small pin and said "here, you now have something to remember the Olympics with" I still have it next to my "jello" pin. Great times![signature]