Beckham set for debut

The 19-year-old who arrived for Paul Mariner’s inspection was, as befitting his age, green as a shamrock.

But youth and inexperience rarely mask the quality that a teenage David Beckham brought in 1994 to Preston North End.

Otherworldly talent.

‘‘Natural. Natural,’’ Mariner, the New England Revolution assistant coach, recalled of the youngster’s skills. ‘‘Obviously in training, you’re working on things all the time and you’re going to get better. But he had a lot of natural talent.’’

Mariner was an assistant at Preston when Beckham landed via loan from Manchester United that season. And while Mariner recognized the singularity of the precocious and precious footballer, he never dreamed the soft-spoken Beckham would explode into Becks, the bold-faced global phenomenon who is arguably the most recognized athlete in the world today.

‘‘I don’t think anybody could,’’ said Mariner. ‘‘With the way his life developed, from his marriage, being the captain of Manchester United, being the captain of England — all these things are high-profile events.’’

On Sunday, Mariner and the Revolution will square off against Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy at Gillette Stadium. Beckham, however, is not just another soccer star. He’s an athlete whose career exploded in a perfect storm of athletic achievement and celebrity appeal, thrusting him onto an Everest-high peak known only to the Tigers and Michaels, the few who have transformed from boys into brands.

‘‘We always try to find the best athletes who are good at what they do on their field and are good ambassadors for the brand,’’ said Evan Weiner, spokesman for Adidas, which is a primary sponsor of Beckham and MLS. ‘‘But Beckham has become one of the most notable global athletes of our time.’’

This story will appear in Friday's Boston Globe. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Closing shop

The Games come to an end in a few hours here with the Closing Ceremony.

It's always a bit different than the Opening, which is a bit more rigid with the athletes from each country sticking together. They usually mingle a bit more at the end after spending the last weeks as competitors.

Sweden just beat Finland for the gold in hockey in the last event. That matchup was described by Bob Ryan as Southie vs. Eastie. Nice for two rivals to end it like that.

But for me the best end was standing in one of the plazas in Turin this afternoon watching on a big screen television -- high def no less -- while an Italian won the men's 50-kilometer cross country.

A nice cheer went up for Giorgio Di Centa as he made the final push. It was great to see the host country get that gold. Italy has taken some shots, mostly from Americans, for not being like Salt Lake City with the crowds, etc. But as John Powers notes, it was an Italian Games and that's fine.

Everyone has special moments from the Games -- Bob Ryan will share his in Monday's Globe -- but for me it was going to the Alps for a day and talk to US skier Julia Mancuso after she didn't do so well in the Super G.

That day, she tried to keep a smile and put a good face on her performance but she was "ready to get in my RV and go home."

That was on a Monday. By Friday she had stuck around and won the gold in the giant slalom. I talked to her again on Saturday morning at a USOC press conference and it was great to watch her pull out her gold medal and look at it.

She was glad she'd stayed.

Old friend

You come to enough of these Winter Olympics and you develop some personal favorites. We watched one today in speedskating. Claudia Pechstein of Germany.

Not a name familiar to most. But after putting her name in previews and watching her skate for the last FIVE Olympics, you develop a type of bond.

That's why it was so fun to watch her today in the women's 5,000 meter race. She had just turned 34 earlier this week and you knew this would be her last race.

As we watched from the press center, she had her own little cheering section in Bob Ryan and myself. One of our younger colleagues, Amalie Benjamin, probably thought we were a little weird.

Anyway, Claudia (we're on a first name basis in our unique way) skated to the silver. It was her second medal here and her ninth overall.

As we were later telling of her performance to John Powers, he noted that she is probably the only skater here who competed when the competition was held outdoors. The last time that happened at an Olympics was at Albertville in 1992. Ever since, the competition has been indoors.

More fall guys

The way skiers keep falling in the first run of the men's slalom, you'd alomst think it was the final grouping of the women's figure skating.

"Down goes Sasha"

"Down goes Bode"

You get the idea.

Familiar name

The best US skier in the first run of the men's slalom ... Cochran, Jimmy.

That name may sound familiar to even the casual ski fan. His grandfather, Mickey, was the Alpine director of the US ski team for many years. His father, Bobby, was a US national champion, and his aunt Barbara won a gold in the 1972 Olympics.

So far in today's slalom, many of the big names haven't survived the first run. Bode Miller straddled a gate and abandoned his run. Ted Ligety made it down the course in second place only to be DQ'd later for straddling a gate. Ten of the first 30 to start, didn't finish.

Only Cochran, and Chip Knight, two of the lower profile US skiers stayed alive for the second run.

If the second run is anything like the first, then last man standing might win.

Slow ride

I don't want to say that watching the men's 10,000 meters is boring, but it's a long day at the Oval Lingotto for anyone.

Since they started the racing about two hours ago, I've had time to celebrate the men's curling bronze, check out if there were tickets left for the World Curling Championships in Lowell the first week of April (yes, good seats available), go to the nearby mall, pick up laundry and still be back in time to watch Chad Hedrick's race.

It takes the racers about 13 minutes to cover the 10,000 meters. Luckily it's only a field of 16.

Gold in the hills

Julia Mancuso won the women's giant slalom for the first gold for the US women's alpine team.

It's a great race to watch. The snow was falling and you'd seek the skiers emerge from the white to make the final turns.

It reminded me -- and I'm dating myself here -- of watching Jean-Claude Killy at Grenoble on our old black and white TV in 1968.

Who's on first

Tony Chamberlain cautions not to get too excited -- it's only the bottom of the fifth inning, he says -- but Julia Mancuso of the US has the lead after the first run of the women's giant slalom.

It's been such a downer of a Games for the US ski team, especially the women's side, we'll take any kind of good news we can get.

The second run starts in about an hour so we'll see if she can hold it for only the second alpine medal of the Games for the US.

A surprise winner

And the winner is ...

Shizuka Arakawa of Japan is the women's figure skating champion. Arakawa was the only one of the contenders to keep her feet throughout the long program as she jumped from third to first.

Sasha Cohen managed to get the silver despite two falls to open her program. Irina Slutskaya seemed in good shape but fell two-thirds of the way through her program and dropped to third in the long skate and third overall.

Silver or bronze for Sasha

With just Irina Slutskaya to skate, Sasha Cohen is in second behind Shizuka Arakawa of Japan.

So, depending on how Slutskaya does, it will be silver or bronze for the US.

The last time the US only got a bronze was 1988 when Debra Thomas was third and Jill Trenary fourth.

No gold for Sasha

Shizuka Arakawa moves into first place with a much cleaner skate of her long program. She easily passes Sasha Cohen, who fell twice.

With three skaters left, Arakawa is in first followed by Cohen and Canada's Joannie Rochette.

There is a chance the US could go without a medal in women's figure skating for the first time since 1964. A young skater named Peggy Fleming was sixth that year, and came back for gold in 1968.

Fall girl

Sasha Cohen falls on her first two jumps.

That medal is slipping away fast.

Hughes report

Emily Hughes can finish no worse than eighth in the women's figure skating.

She stands second with six skaters to go, including Sasha Cohen and Irina Slutskaya.

Cohen, by the way, just had a mini-collision in warmups but nothing serious.

Could be a bit of the nerves starting to show.

Skating order

The order for tonight's long program in the women's figure skating is set. Sasha Cohen will go second in the final group and then have to wait for four skaters to see if she's capture the gold.

The final skater? Irina Slutskaya.

Instant analysis from our figure skating expert, John Powers, is that skating last could hurt Slutskaya a bit because she will have warmed up and then have to sit backstage for nearly 30 minutes before skating. And at her age, that can cause you to stiffen up.

Another colleague, David Barron of the Houston Chronicle, so far has correctly picked 8 of the 9 medalists in order in the men's, pairs and dance. His picks for tonight, printed weeks ago, were Slutskaya, Cohen and Shizuka Arakawa of Japan. They all happen to be top three going into tonight.

One for all

On a recent bus ride to the main press center, I met an American journalist with an interesting task: covering the Olympics for the Chinese audience in North America.

She is Ju-Nie Shen Muller, the sports editor for the World Journal, based in New York and billed as the "largest Chinese newspaper in North America."

Muller is here to cover primarily the Chinese athletes. No real interest in the stories driving the American readership such as snowboarding dudes, men's hockey losers or bickering speedskaters.
(Although she did have a personal interest in how I thought Boston fans would treat Johnny Damon when he came back with the Yankees.)

Instead, the Chinese focus has been on aerial skiing, short-track speedskating and even pairs figure skating. All events that the team from China has won medals in.

She told funny stories of riding on the bus to Sauze d' Oulx for aerial skiing and the bus making its way up the small mountain roads. It reminded her first of a family trip to Yosemite where he husband had some issues with the small roads there, but she said it was more like some mountain roads in Taiwan, with no guard rail.

She wished her paper, which is distributed in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver, could have sent another reporter or photographer.

Instead, she tries to do it all herself. "My boss thinks I am on vacation here so I have to show him I am not."

I later clicked on the paper's website, www.worldjournal.com, to see how the coverage going.

Unfortunately, I can't read Chinese but the coverage did look impressive.

Blue day

It's been an up-and-down start to the day for the US, but mostly it's a downer as we start counting down to the Closing Ceremony on Sunday.

The US showed a bit of surprise in cross country skiing this morning as Kikkan Randall in the women's sprint and Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, Vt.) and Chris Cook in the men's sprint advanced to the quarterfinals.

It's a fun event to watch, and a sport the US has never done that well in, save for Bill Koch.

You thought for a minute, that maybe a surprise medal was possible. But the dreams ended quickly in the later races as they were all eliminated. In the sprint format, a group of six racers go at once over a short course and the top two advance until you have the final field.

About the same time, Tyler Jewell of Sudbury, was going in the men's parallel giant slalom race of snowboarding. It isn't the strongest event for the US and Jewell had only one top 10 this year. He made it out of qualifying but lost his race by one-hundredth of a second and was eliminated in the first round.

He's still a great story, of how he even got here. Amalie Benjamin was on scene with the family (13 in all) and will have all the details in Thursday's Globe.

As for the alpine skiers, it was a bad first run for the US women in the slalom. They've got an afternoon run but a medal is pretty much out of the question. Kristina Koznick, trying to compete after hurting a knee in training, already has pulled out.

For what's coming up, we can look ahead to the US-Finland men's hockey game but pucks guru Kevin Paul Dupont doesn't have much hope for a US victory. Even if the Americans won, they would face Canada or Russia in the semis, so it would be a long stretch for a gold.

I guess we can start prepping for Sasha Cohen's night on Thursday but she skipped practice today and John Powers wouldn't be surprised if she skated a bit tense come the long program.

A morning out

We keep our staff pretty busy here during the Olympics. Because after all, we are working and trying to cover as many stories as possible. Every now and then, there is a small break.

Here's a tale from staffer Amalie Benjamin from earlier in the week. (She definitely doesn't have time for anything today because she was at the figure skating last night until 1 a.m. and was back en route this morning to the mountains by 7 a.m. for snowboarding.)

On my one (and only) free morning, I decided to take a walk from our lovely media village toward the downtown area in an effort to determine whether or not we are, in fact, in Europe.

We are.

My destination was a tiny, eight-table cafe that esteemed colleague Bob Ryan had pointed out to me in a tour book earlier in the week. It made mentioned of a Torinese specialty, the bicerin, a concoction of coffee, rich chocolate, and cream. I had to try it.

Despite not being a coffee drinker, unusual among my sportswriting brethren, the drink was more than worth the healthy 40-minute walk. Halfway through my cafe stay, two girls sitting next to me looked over and, spying my copy of Sports Illustrated on the table, began to talk with me. (Note: Being an American in Turin enables you to make friends quickly. It's that whole no-one-speaks-English-but-us phenomenon. We're all in this together, I guess.) The two girls, both living in Nashville and recent college graduates, had come to Italy solely out of love of the Olympics. Not only were they going to at least two events per day (when I met them they had tickets to speedskating in the afternoon and women's hockey at night), they were staying in Milan. Now that's a hike. Especially for their trips to the mountains, about a two and a half hour train ride.

So, apparently, some people care about these Games, something that seemed questionable with venues half-full of spectators and a less-than-excited vibe flowing through the city of Turin.

They just happen to be American.

Last will be first

Sasha Cohen, the last skater in the short program (now, there's a misnomer because it lasted about four and a half ours) is the leader.

She beat out Irina Slutskaya of Russia.

Cohen's kept a low profile since arriving in Turin. We'll see if she can maintain for the gold. The women's long program is Thursday.

Long wait

It's been four hours since Kimmie Meissner took the ice as the second skater in the women's short program.

Here's what she had to say while she waited to see how well her score of 59.40 would hold up:

“I was really excited out there and it felt awesome. When I went out there the crowd went wild, so that was good. I was kind of a little stumbly in my footwork, but I think I was just kind of excited. I think I was definitely more excited than nervous, so it felt really, really good.”

On program component scores:
“I think the judges know what they’re doing, so what I put out there is what they scored me on. I might have some things to work on, but I think the judges did a good job. I definitely wanted to do a clean short, and so I feel like I get an ‘A’ for that, and now for the long I’m just going to try to do a clean long.”

On medaling:
“I’m going to have to wait and see how things end up at the end tonight, but right now I feel pretty good about going for a medal.“

On experience:
“I think you have to have a certain amount of experience, but at the same time, sometimes it’s nice coming in fresh, and this being my first time I think it’s good just to start out.“

Scoring at home

If you want to score along at home -- that may be the next thing coming to figure skating's new scoring system -- here is what the three US skaters were planning for their short program:

Kimmie Meissner
Triple lutz + triple toeloop
Triple flip
Layback spin
Spiral step sequence
Double axel
Change foot combination spin
Straight line step sequence
Flying sit spin

Emily Hughes
Triple flip
Triple lutz + double toeloop
Serpentine step sequence
Double axel
Flying sit spin
Spiral step sequence
Layback spin
Change foot combination spin

Sasha Cohen
Triple lutz + double toeloop
Triple flip
Flying camel spin
Double axel
Spiral step sequence
Layback spin
Straightline step sequence
Change foot combination spin

Who's the bad guy?

Shani Davis got the better of Chad Hedrick in the men's 1,500 speedskate today but neither of the US rivals got the gold. That went to one happy Italian, Enrico Fabris.

Fabris, who skated early, posted a fast time and then had to sit and wait. Hedrick couldn't beat it, and then in the final heat of the night, Davis was ahead of Fabris' pace most of the race but slowed in the final lap to settle for silver. Hedrick got the bronze.

Then for the interesting part. Davis was all smiles as he went around the track, waving to the fans and hugging Fabris on his win. Hedrick sat alone and looked a bit peeved by it all.

It sure made Davis look like the good guy in the continuing saga of the bad feelings between the two. It goes back to what now look like the unrealistic expectations of five medals for Hedrick in these Games. He started with a gold in the 5,000 but then the US lost in the team pursuit event.

Davis opted to skip that race to rest for his best event, the 1,000. When the US lost, Hedrick found ways to slip in little jabs at Davis for not being a team guy.

The comments continued after Davis won the 1,000 and Hedrick finished out of the medals.

But last night, Davis didn't look anything like the bad guy, and Hedrick sure looked like the unsportsmanlike one. As for the medals, Davis has two (gold, silver) and Hedrick two (gold, bronze). Hedrick has one event left (the 10,000) while Davis done.

Bob Ryan, who is fast adding speedskating to his repertoire of winter sports that he can become an expert on, is on the scene and will have his take in Wednesday's Globe.

The hills are alive

You just never know what you're going to find at the Olympics.

Monday night, after watching the women's Super G in San Sicario, we ventured into the village of Sauze d'Oulx.

One of the first sights we saw was something that looked like an old American Indian village in a town square. Instead it was a series of tepee-looking structures made by a traveling band of Sami, the indigenous people of Norway, northern Sweden and Finland.

They had come here to promote the Sami way of life, interest tourists in visiting and of course sell a lot of reindeer products. We tasted the reindeer sausage and salami (edge to the sausage) and sampled a Norwegian beer while sitting around a campfire in the largest lavvu, which is what they call their tents.

The beer, called Mack, is from the northernmost brewery in the world and was definitely cold, which is a key requirement for beer in my mind.

From there, we found dinner and then a true English pub. The owner, Mark, knows how to do things just right to keep the clientele happy. On a previous night Tanja Frieden, the winner of the women's snowboardcross when Lindsey Jacobellis fell, was there celebrating. With the highlights playing on the video screen, Mark popped in "Que Sera, Sera" on the CD player.

Last night, it was the Micheala Dorfmeister fan club in attendance. Dorfmeister had won the Super G earlier that day and the Austrians were in a party mood. Mark was at his best, replaying Dorfmeister's run with his TiVo and playing the accompanying music of "Hey, Mickey you're so fine." The Austrians, with "Team Michi Fan Club" shirts were swaying.

Bode's run

Bode Miller made it exciting with his second run in today's giant slalom as he moved from 12th to first for a brief time.

Miller kept the lead for the next five skiers, raising the chance that he could get his first medal of the Games. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal finally tied Miller's time and then they were both knocked off the podium as the final five competitors beat them.

Austria's Benjamin Raich took the gold followed by Joel Chenal of France and Hermann Maier of Austria.

Miller's second run was the fourth-fastest of the afternoon but not good enoug to overcome a slow start in the morning.

Still, he had the best finish for the US as Daron Rahlves and Ted Ligety didn't survive the morning run and Erik Schlopy finished 13th.

Full-metal jacket

Somehow, I think John Powers and myself are the only two media members here without a ski jacket of some sort. Powers is surviving just fine with his blue blazer as he bounces from figure skating to speedskating to the latest meeting with the Olympic brass.

A lot of the press has "team" jackets. The Associated Press has white jackets with orange and black trim. All of the Japanese media have bright-colored jackets representing their station or newspaper. Of course, the Olympic workers all have the same uniforms as well.

The Globe didn't bother to order special jackets for our Olympic 9, but that's OK. Bob Ryan is still wearing what he calls his Lillehammer jacket. He bought it for the 1994 Games and has been using it ever since. Everyone else is in good shape, too.

Me, I brought my regular faux-leather jacket and figured that with the sweaters/layers philosophy it would serve me fine. Of course, just before leaving Boston, we had one of those breaking-zipper episodes. (If you watch "Seinfeld," it was too similar to the time George's jacket zipper stuck while he was visiting a therapist.)

Anyway, I've had no real problems with a jacket that won't zip. But I wasn't sure how today would pan out. Instead of the usual 45-minute bus trip to the media center, I've ventured out to San Sicario in the Alps for the women's Super G. After all the snow messed with schedules and transportation Sunday night, I was a bit worried.

When we got here, I stopped in one of the local ski shops, thinking I could join the ski-jacket team. But all I could see where items in the 300-Euro range. A bit much for my budget. Besides, I'm still trying to master the European sizing system. It just doesn't feel right buying a size 56.

Anyway, it's a sunny day and almost warm. Who needs the jacket, which does look frightfully out of place, on a day like this?

Winter redux

Here in the mountains of Sestriere and San Sicario we are experiencing some beautiful snowy winter conditions.

Beautiful, that is, until ski races get cancelled. Or until we ride one of the full size coach busses we rely on for transportation daily among the mountain hamlets and Olympic venues here. These busses must make hairpin turns on roads build for breadbox-sized Fiats.

There is one point in mid-switchback turn where everyone on one side of the bus gets to look down a 2000 foot cliff at - should said bus not complete said turn - their doom.

This is no six-lane I-89 through the White Mounains or even I-70 through Loveland Pass Colorado.

For most of the time here the roads have been clear. But today the snow is very heavy and unrelenting, and most of us covering the skiing are wondering if it will stop in time to get the courses cleared off and packed for ski racing tomorrow. There are pessimists among us - shades of Nagano and Sarajevo games that were totally stuffed up with snow.

Personally, I'll just be happy if my bus makes it from Whoville up those little Fiat roads to the top of Mt. Crumpet and the little village of Claviere where I'm living in a small but lively hotel run by a native famly who go out of their way to make things cheery for writers, even those returning well after midnight. I've been in Italy less than two weeks, but returning to the Hotel Passero Pellagrino at night really feels like coming home.