Sport: With Homemade Snow and Dreams of the Past

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A few miles away, Doug Fletcher watched as scrapers gnawed away at a three-story-high mount of man-made snow, scooping it up for loading into an ever moving convoy of dump trucks. One week before the Olympic Games were scheduled to open, the final yards of the cross-country courses were being blanketed. For the first time in history, man-made snow was being used for Nordic skiing. In less than a month, Fletcher's crew of 50-plus men, 30 dump trucks and 19 spreading machines had trundled through the woods around Mount Van Hoevenberg and covered a maze of trails 17 miles long with almost a foot of snow.

As the snow slowly crept into the huge stadium where fans will sit to watch the start and finish of cross-country and biathlon events, the taciturn Fletcher smiled. "It was a big job, but we did it." The British biathlon team manager offered a more eloquent summation: "When you think of it, it's a modern miracle. They've made all the snow for an Olympic Games."

Spreading the Word. Whatever happens on the slopes and in the rinks, there is certain to be at least one world record broken before the closing ceremonies: more will be written, broadcast and photographed during these Winter Games than during any others in history. More journalists will be in residence—and in competition—at Lake Placid than athletes.

To accommodate newsmen, classes at Lake Placid High School were suspended in late January so that a press center could be installed in its classrooms, auditorium and gymnasium. Computer terminals will provide biographical information around the clock on every athlete competing in the Games.

But all this pales in comparison with the television facilities. ABC has spent $25 million to produce the Games, scattering 109 cameras throughout the venues. Total value of equipment in use: $70 million. The most complex operation will provide top of the mountain to finish-line coverage of alpine skiing. For that task alone, nearly 50 miles of cable were laid to connect 25 cameras on Whiteface Mountain—then patched up when the local wildlife, including a foraging bear, started to nibble on the lines. Getting all the electronic gadgetry installed was no snap. Says Marvin Bader, ABC sports director of special projects: "It's a small town. There's one hardware store, one lumberyard, and for electronics, you've got Radio Shack."

As preparations went ahead for the Games, there were some fusses offstage.

The Soviet athletes arrived at the Olympic Village, took one look at their quarters, and pronounced themselves horrified. A spokesman declared that the facility was "unlivable and unsanitary," and altogether too suggestive of the prison it will become.

Meanwhile, the team from Taiwan was fighting in the courts for the right to use its own flag and anthem, a right denied by the International Olympic Committee when it voted to accept the team from mainland China. On another front, I.O.C. began considering the request from the U.S. Olympic committee, made at the behest of President Carter after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, to cancel, postpone or move to another site the Summer Olympics scheduled for Moscow.