GAMES NOT TO REMEMBER SMALL CROWDS, UNINSPIRING VENUES, U.S. MISCUES MARK TURIN OLYMPICS.

Byline: PAUL OBERJUERGE

TURIN, Italy - Journalism is the rough draft of history. We throw a lot of stuff out there; we don't know what's going to stick in anyone's mind.

You think you just saw a memorable moment ... and it's gone six months (or maybe six days) later.

It's a tough business, predicting what might have some mental shelf life out of the Turin Winter Games. But this is how it looks, for U.S.-centric viewers, as the Olympic cauldron flickers out:

--1. Lindsey Jacobellis' mustard-off-the-hot dog fall while showing off on the threshold of snowboardcross gold. After she got up, she settled for silver. One of the all-time sports gaffes. We're confident this will be remembered a lot longer than her Visa commercial.

--2. Bode goes bust. He made the covers of Time and Newsweek beforeTurin, then went 0 for 5 in medals, professed not to care and seemed to prove it with late-night sightings in Alpine clubs. His name now is practically synonymous with ``loser.''

--3. Johnny being Johnny. The most outrageous guy in the American delegation, self-described ``princessy'' fashionista and mega-consumer (he owns 103 sets of sunglasses), skater Johnny Weir didn't win anything. In fact, he absolutely fell apart in the clutch, lamenting his missing ``aura.'' But he made an impression, you bet.

--4. Sasha's rally. With gold on the line, she went ``splat'' on her first two jumps. Just as we began toting how many millions she'd lost in endorsements, Cohen got up, gathered herself and finished with strength and courage. Turning defeat into a silver medal.

--5. Chad vs. Shani. A lot of Americans don't know long-track skating from off-track betting, but the jabs and jibes between the nation's two best skaters weren't all in good fun. If both are around in 2010, the feud will be back on center stage.

--6. Chad vs. Shani vs. Enrico. In the 1,500-meter Showdown on the Ice Sheet, the ``other'' guy won - Italy's Enrico Fabris. Reminding us that long-track isn't a mano-a-mano event.

--7. Apolo Anton Ohno delivers. The very night we were ready to bury The Soul Patch Kid as the biggest fraud in sports-marketing history, he powered to gold in the short-track 500, then carried a mediocre relay team to a bronze.

--8. Shaun White, The Flying Tomato, shredding the competition in the men's halfpipe. One of the hyped athletes who actually delivered. Seems like it happened a month ago, but the X-Gamer could be the next Tony Hawk-style alternative-sports marketing monster.

--9. Hockey women choke. In female pucks, the U.S. is to Sweden what USC is to San Jose State in football. But the Yanks froze up when pushed into a semifinal shootout. Ugh.

--10. Opening ceremony. Gymnasts suspended on rigging wriggling into the shape of a dove during the weird and of-so-Italian opening ceremony. We had chills, and not from the cold.

It was an interesting Olympics.

Turin ran an efficient Olympics. The buses generally ran on time (aside from the night of the brief, wildcat strike by drivers), the venues worked, people moved around at reasonable speed.

The volunteers were always cheerful, and attempted to be helpful (with mixed success), but it was an Olympics without much spark.

Part of it was geography. This was a divided Olympics. You had the mountain Olympics of skiing, sliding, shooting and jumping, and the city Olympics of skating and hockey. Rarely did the twain meet, and journalists who attempted to negotiate both halves (and the three-hour commutes), quickly were reduced to zombies.

Part of the lack of spark was a failure by organizers to get Italy, or even the local populace, engaged. Venues were small but still not filled. The streets were empty, and reporters in the mountains also talked about the lack of buzz at competitions.

Sometimes, it seemed as if half the crowd were folks wearing volunteer jackets, not actual ticket-buyers.

The venues were uninspiring, even the new ones. Lots of concrete, a little glass, minimal charm. In the city, no snow.

Running an Olympics is a difficult and almost thankless task. Thousands of foreigners descend on your town, destroy any semblance of normal life, then complain about what they saw. We sympathize.

But how can we positively spin 17 days in a dreary, soggy city smothered in smog? With no discernible local enthusiasm and thousands of empty seats?

That left Turin utterly dependent on the athletes to save the day and make it all memorable. They did their best, and we already went over some potentially potent memories.

But on our scale of 1-to-12, of the Olympics we've seen (Sydney being No. 1, Lillehammer No. 2), Turin ranks about 11th. Ahead of Atlanta, behind Albertville - and everywhere else.

Grazie, Torino. Grazie, Italia. We appreciate the effort. But we can't say we leave Turin all melancholy at the end of something truly special.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Fireworks explode behind the Olympic rings during Sunday's closing ceremony in Turin, Italy.

Andrew P. Scott/Associated Press

(2 -- color) Bode Miller loses control in the super-G. Miller failed to medal in five events.

Andrea Rustioni/Associated Press

(3 -- color) Figure skater Johnny Weir lamented his missing ``aura'' after finishing fifth.

Amy Sancetta/Associated Press

(4 -- color) Lindsey Jacobellis' styling cost her the gold medal in snowboardcross.

Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press

(5 -- color) Angela Ruggiero misfires on a shootout attempt in a stunning semifinal loss to Sweden.

BrianBahr/Getty Images

(6 -- color) Italy's Enrico Fabris smiles after beating Chad Hedrick, right, and Shani Davis, left, in the 1,500 meters.

Franck Fife/Getty Images

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