Olympics Week One: Doughnut medals, village complaints and average attendance

By David Hein Feb 18, 2006, 14:51 GMT

Canadian athletes Sara Renner (L) and Beckie Scott pose with their silver medals after the women\'s Team Sprint Cross Country competition at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Pragelato Plan, Tuesday 14 February 2006. EPA/FRANCO DEBERNARDI

Sestriere, Italy - Week One of the 2006 Turin Winter Games has witnessed mixed reviews about the Olympic medals, a series of complaints about conditions in the Athletes Village, and average attendance figures.

Obviously the main focus at the Olympics is the sporting events and who wins the medals which will be savoured for a lifetime.

But the design of the medals has received a mixed bag of reviews in the first week of action.

'They are different. They are very much appreciated by some, but we are aware that others don't like them so much,' said Turin Olympic Committee spokesman Giuseppe Gattino.

'We wanted to give the athletes something different, something new. They are more like Italian jewels. Athletes win medals all the time. We like the way the athletes look through the medals.'

German 10km biathlon sprint biathlon gold medallist Sven Fischer said: 'I don't mind the hole at all. It reminds me of the targets I shoot at.'

Designed by Dario Quatrini, the medals have a hole in the middle of them and show the graphic element of the Games on the front and a pictogram of the respective discipline on the back.

German Georg Hettich, who captured gold in the nordic combined individual, offered up this point of view: 'At first I thought it looked a little strange. But I haven't tried to put it in my CD-player.'

Others think the medals look like a doughnut.

'I'm very, very hungry for coloured doughnuts,' said Italian alpine skier Giorgio Rocca, who, however, has been unable to still his hunger.

Regardless of design, none of the athletes will be heard complaining that they won a medal.

Complaints, meanwhile, have been numerous regarding conditions in the Athletes Village in Sestriere.

The day before the Games started, Liechtenstein alpine skier Marco Buechel already offered the first concerns.

'Do you want to hear something from my heart? I hate everything around here and the village is very dirty. I don't like it. It's a shame that it's so dirty. There's no asphalt on the ground so when you go outside you go ankle deep in mud,' he said.

On Thursday, Canadian men's bobsledder Pierre Lueders was asked if he was enjoying his time in the Olympic Village: 'Not really. It's not quite finished. They could have finished the facility a little better. The Olympics is supposed to be for the athletes and when you don't even have the village finished, well, that's not the way it should be.'

He continued: 'It's basically half a construction zone. You just have to take a look. It's not a lot different than out here (on the track). It's pretty disappointing. Maybe in a couple years they will be ready.'

Austrian athletes at first lived in basement apartments before switching domiciles with the Austrian coaches and servicemen into the first floor, which pleased Austrian luger Rainer Margreiter: 'It wasn't too good down there. There wasn't much light, it was very damp and it smelled of fresh concrete.'

And the food in the Olympic Village has been a regular topic of discussion throughout the first week - despite Italy's reputation for having top food.

'It's disgusting. I've never eaten such bad food in my life,' said United States alpine skier Resi Stiegler. 'It's unfortunate because Italy is known for its good food and I've had good Italian food, but I guess they just don't know how to cook for a lot of people.'

Stiegler said she and her team-mates sometimes search out US alpine skier Julia Mancuso, who lives in a mobile home, for a steak. Or they look for Chinese athletes and see if they can scrape up some rice and spring rolls.

Canadian cross country skier Beckie Scott was even seen holding a take-out pizza from a pizzeria on the main square in Sestriere mid-week.

And Russian athletes also were outspoken to Italian media about the food issue.

That prompted the 2006 Olympics media relations team to invite the world's media to a dinner in the Olympic Village on Sunday night.

'We've all eaten there and think it's good food. I don't know why they're complaining,' said Loris Gherra from TOROC media relations in Sestriere.

'It's not a five-star restaurant. But it's a good restaurant. And the food menu is provided by the International Olympic Committee.'

What can't be provided by the IOC is full venues. And very few events have been sold out over the first week. <!--page-->

Still, Turin organizers had sold 828,000 tickets by Thursday, closing in on their break-even goal of 830,000. And they've already surpassed their ticketing revenue target of 64 million euros. The IOC says attendance has been in the 80 per cent and above range.

But some athletes have complained about a lack of fan support at their disciplines.

'You don't feel it's the Olympic Games because there are not a lot of people,' said cross country 10km individual silver medallist and World Cup leader Marit Bjorgen of Norway. 'You want to feel a lot of people on the last climb to help you. It's a little disappointing there aren't a lot of people here.'

And speedskating has failed to draw the same numbers as in past Olympics, as American Jennifer Rodriguez said earlier in the week: 'It's very disappointing to walk in and it's half empty. I can't believe this is the Olympics. It almost felt like a World Cup meet. The Olympics should be sold out.'

One of the poorest visited sports has been the luge as only 1,237 fans - capacity at Cesana Pariol is 7,130 spectators - came out for Tuesday night's women luge event, which ended in a German podium sweep. Even Italian Armin Zoeggeler's Olympic gold medal run on Sunday only drew 3,150 fans.

'It depends on the events,' Gattino said. 'It's true at some events there has not been much public. We are aware of it, but we're not particularly worried.'

There's still more than a week of action left.