The Winter Games are underway in Milan and the Italian Alps. There are a bunch of athletes from the North Country competing in events from luge and bobsled, to ski jumping, aerials, and ice hockey.<\/p>\n
This is NPR\u2019s Brian Mann\u2019s third time covering the Olympics. Brian was a reporter with NCPR for many years. He still lives in the Adirondacks, so he\u2019s been keeping an eye on our local Olympians.<\/p>\n
He checked in live from Italy with Northern Light co-hosts Monica Sandreczki and Catherine Wheeler. Their conversation has been edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
CATHERINE WHEELER:\u00a0What\u2019s it like over there?<\/p>\n
BRIAN MANN:\u00a0You know, I just took a bus up into the mountains. I\u2019ve been in Milan so far through these Olympics, and I was blown away\u2014the ride up into the mountains. I\u2019m here in Cortina now, this gorgeous little mountain town, and I\u2019m actually sitting right outside the sled track, the sliding center. I can see it from where I\u2019m sitting. A beautiful, sunny day here, and the mountains are just breathtaking. I don\u2019t have words for how gorgeous [it is].<\/p>\n
WHEELER:\u00a0Oh, that sounds just lovely. And you said you\u2019re by the sled track. Who are some of the North Country athletes that you\u2019re following, and what have they been doing so far?<\/p>\n
MANN:\u00a0You had that\u00a0great piece from Emily Russell<\/a>\u00a0on earlier that kind of summed it up. It was pretty dramatic Tuesday with Fischnaller, having that hard bump and skid on the track, and then that dramatic recovery. And having a medal for the luge team Tuesday [by Ashley Farquharson] \u2014 that was really dramatic and wonderful. And so that\u2019s been really great. I\u2019ll be here watching some of these doubles luge races this afternoon, local time here, and into the evening. And so I\u2019ll be following those as well. And it\u2019s going to be really fun to see some hometown folks sitting here at the press center.<\/p>\n WHEELER:\u00a0Brian, this is your third time covering the Olympics. How do these games compare to those in Beijing or Paris?<\/p>\n BRIAN MANN:\u00a0They actually feel really different. And part of it is because they\u2019re so dispersed, right? I spent a big part of the day on trains and buses to get here. So what\u2019s happening in Milan feels really far away from what\u2019s happening up here in the mountains.<\/p>\n That said, what is identical is the joy that I felt in Paris. There\u2019s just so much happiness. And I think the other thing that\u2019s just on the faces of all these athletes is that in Beijing, because it was the end of the pandemic and because China is much more of a locked-down place, it was really difficult for the athletes to really have fun. And here, man, you can really just see that it\u2019s joy first. Obviously, the competition matters, but I\u2019ve seen athletes who\u2019ve really struggled here who are still clearly having an amazing time.<\/p>\n And we\u2019ve also just seen some breakout performances. Ben Ogden\u2019s remarkable finish,\u00a0winning silver<\/a>\u00a0on the cross-country course. Really history-making. He\u2019s a great Vermont racer, part of the\u00a0Bill Koch<\/a>\u00a0tradition there. So there have been some just really breathtaking highlights already.<\/p>\n SANDRECZKI:\u00a0Well, to the point that you made earlier\u2014this is the first time that the Games have officially been hosted by two pretty distant locations, in Milan and Cortina, and some people here in New York are pointing to this as a model for Lake Placid and New York City to co-host in the future. What are people saying about this spread-out model and its potential?<\/p>\n MANN:\u00a0I think people here are thinking it\u2019s working really well. And in some ways, New York City and Lake Placid are more linked and more easily accessible than this. Remember, it\u2019s not just two communities here, up here in the Alps. The different courses\u2014I\u2019m going to go see\u00a0Jessie Diggins<\/a>\u00a0race on the cross-country course\u2014that\u2019s going to be another two-hour trip from where I\u2019m staying here. So it\u2019s really scattered. So in some ways, you know, the Lake Placid-New York idea has some advantages.<\/p>\n I think this is a test model. People are talking about it here. They\u2019re discussing everything from how security works to the costs and all of that. But I think so far\u2014I actually chatted with one of the volunteers today, and she was just bubbling about how well it had gone. I think the Italians are really delighted. Of course, they\u2019re also doing really well in the medal count, so that\u2019s great for the home country. But I think everybody thinks this is really coming off remarkably well.<\/p>\n WHEELER:\u00a0Brian, we\u2019ve been seeing that some of the U.S. Olympic athletes have gotten some backlash for speaking out against the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement actions while they\u2019re there in Italy. What\u2019s going on there?<\/p>\n MANN:\u00a0This is interesting to me. There are so many of these athletes, these winter sport athletes, who come from places that have been really directly affected by some of these really aggressive Trump administration policies\u2014the ICE crackdown. A lot of it happening in Minneapolis. There are a lot of athletes here from Minnesota. Obviously, it\u2019s a real powerhouse winter sports state. Athletes here from Oregon and other states that have really been directly affected. There are also a lot of athletes here who are the children of immigrants. Some of them were born in other countries themselves. And so there has been a real feeling, I think, among these athletes, that this feels very personal to them.<\/p>\n Sometimes when you go to an event like this, it feels like the reporters, the journalists, are kind of prodding people to have an opinion\u2014asking repeated questions to try to get a response. And this is very different here. The athletes clearly do want to talk about this. They\u2019re concerned about what they\u2019re seeing back home, and some of those comments clearly attracted the President\u2019s attention\u2014he fired off that social media post, and that has been a factor. There have also been threats against some of the U.S. athletes here, so that\u2019s definitely kind of a shadow.<\/p>\n But I do want to really emphasize that overall, the mood here is pretty joyous. It\u2019s pretty positive. Despite some of those tensions, people are having a blast.<\/p>\n SANDRECZKI:\u00a0And to end on a lighter note\u2014for you in Italy, what are some of the best meals that you\u2019ve had so far?<\/p>\n