The mere mention of Clark’s name or even of the event she won — snowboarding halfpipe — was enough to push the thousands who waited in the cold at Olympic Medals Park into a frenzy of yelling and applause.
When she finally took the stage along with silver medallist Doriane Vidal of France and Fabienne Reuteler of Switzerland, the roars of approval echoed through the night.
And after the gold medal was safely around Clark’s neck and a bouquet of celebratory yellow roses in her hand, the audience whipped out hundreds of U.S. flags, some the size of postcards and others seemingly large enough to lead a cavalry charge.
The first U.S. gold medal for these Olympics came at the end of the medal ceremony, and the audience was patient enough. But there was no question of what the main event was.
Even in the pre-ceremony entertainment program, after the crowd warmed up with such oldies as “Stop in the Name of Love” and “Proud Mary,” presenter Steve Young, a Super Bowl star with the San Francisco 49ers and a Utah native, told the crowd why they were there: “The first gold of the United States!”
At that point, the crowd seemed ready to tear the place apart, but restrained themselves through the awarding of medals in four other events before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe ceremony.
Cindy Klassen of Canada, who captured the bronze medal in the Ladies 3,000 meter speedskating competition, got the second loudest ovation of the night, and the crowd warmed to Simon Ammann of Switzerland, the gold medallist in the individual K90 ski jump.
The other three gold medal winners of the evening — speedskater Claudia Pechstein of Germany, Samppa Lajunen of Finland who won the individual 15 km Nordic combined, and downhill skier Fritz Strobl of Austria — got respectable applause and shouts of support.
But when Clark came out, flanked by Vidal and Reuteler, there was no stopping the excitement.
The 18-year-old seemed happy but a bit overwhelmed as she took in the crowd’s applause, and looked more comfortable when the silver and bronze medallists joined her on the top step of the winners’ platform.
There were cheers from the largely American crowd even as the U.S. national anthem played, and the U.S. flags kept waving even after Clark left the stage.
G S B T
US 1 2 0 3
Austria 1 1 3 5
Germany 1 1 1 3
Finland 1 1 0 2
Netherlands 1 1 0 2
Norway 1 1 0 2
Switzerland 1 0 1 2
Spain 1 0 0 1
Italy 1 0 0 1
France 0 1 0 1
Russia 0 1 0 1
Canada 0 0 1 1
Czech Republic 0 0 1 1
Japan 0 0 1 1
Poland 0 0 1 1
—Reuters