***

Everyone sees Eric. It is cool just to be in the same town with him. The people who don't have tickets for his events lean against the fence around the speed skating rink like refugees, shouting desperately every time he circles by. They love him madly; he is a hero. And it is clear that he loves them back. "Good luck, Eric," a random fan calls out as he whizzes by on a trial run, and Eric literally stops dead in his tracks and spins around and squints up at the crowd in the direction of the voice and smiles and waves vigorously. Everyone shouts and waves back. I can swear that he is waving at me.

***

Romania vs. Czechoslovakia is not the game we wanted to see. In fact, it is the game almost no one in the arena has bought tickets for. But the Official Olympic Ticket Committee misprinted about 400 tickets, leading many United States vs. Norway fans into the wrong arena at the right time. The police guarding the door to the right rink turn spectators away sternly, repeating, "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do about it." They are authoritarian clones, faceless and infuriating among all the hope and faith. "Go to the Chamber of Commerce," is another one of their favorite lines.

"I paid for tickets to see the States play Norway," some one whines.

Transformed, a guard tells him, "Listen, you're just one of a million people the Olympic Committee has screwed today." The words are sacrilege in a way, jolting the spirit of the spectators within hearing distance, choosing to believe the ticket mess-up is an accident. Most people take the guard's cynicism as a joke, laughing all the way to the Romania-Czechoslovakia face-off.

The crowd is very quiet at first, not sure whom to root for, but soon the Romanians start losing, winning the crowd's sympathy. Some real hockey fans know that if the Romanians win this game, the United States will be better off in the standings, so the support of the mainly American crowd is unanimous. But soon, even for the novice hockey fan, it's clear that this is not hockey USA style. The emotionless players barely pause after they score a goal. This quiets the back-slapping American crowd a bit, but even towards the third period, it still looks like the fans care more about the score than the players.

After the Romanians are losing by a large margin, though, one gets angry enough to slug a Czech, who in turn grabs the Romanian's stick. The Czech goes to the penalty box. There he is, a real live Czech sitting just a few feet away. "Take a picture, take a picture of him." So I do. It's embarrassing; after all he's not an animal in the zoo.

American after American lines up to take pictures of the Czech in the penalty box. A little blond kid with a Kodak instamatic won't leave until the player looks up at him. The boy taps on the window insistently until the player turns and glares and the flash bulb nearly blinds him.

It's hard to believe this is happening: the game, the Americans cheering for the Romanians, the peanut vendors, the officials almost killed by a flying puck, the people from Rochester, the buck popcorn, the announcement of the U.S. -Norway score, the ice, the lights, the political implications, the meaning, the flash bulbs. How much did your ticket cost?

***

If you go to ice dancing you hear the same song 12 times and see 12 couples do the same figures. By the end, the performances have blended into one; costumes differentiate the couples, the British wear bright blue, the Soviets wear white and black, the Americans maroon. The ABC cameras are everywhere; people see this in their living rooms in Salt Lake City, Utah. And here we are watching it in person.

The brother of the top American skater sits in front of us, twisting around awkwardly to deliever a sermon on the politics of ice dancing. The awful truth: he predicts all the scores again and again, before his sister, Judy, and her dancing partner, Mike, perform. And when they do, they are oh-so-American. When they kiss in the middle of each figure, the crowd goes crazy with applause for cuteness. The American ice dancers were absolutely the cutest.

This is the way Judy signs my ticket: "Stay loose, Judy B.!!"

***