Images. Whenever you watch an event which carries the magnitude of the Winter Olympics, you are left with memorable images. Competing for your country stirs passions that no other sporting event can equal.

When you play for a World Series or Super Bowl championship, you are creating a fervor for a region or a specific group of people.

It is simply not the same as playing for your flag, your lifestyle, your country’s beliefs.

There was an even greater sense of patriotism for the United States in these Winter Games in Utah because of the tragic events of Sept. 11. The world watched to see how we would react and how these Games would be conducted.

The answer was loud and clear.

Yes, the 34 medals completely shattered our previous high of 13 and was just three shy of the total we attained in the previous three Winter Games combined!!!

But the Games will also be remembered for the thorough security checks that enabled athletes from all over the world to participate without fear.

The concerns expressed in the weeks after Sept. 11 were never realized. The images people will remember of the Olympics were strictly of an athletic nature.

Oh, sure, there was the pairs figure skating squabble and the dismissal of the intimidated French judge. But any time you have a sport that is judged, there is bound to be disagreement and claims of favoritism.

Upgrading the Canadian pair from silver to gold and allowing the Russian pair to keep their gold was the right decision.

Systematic changes will be made in the judging, which is also appropriate.

One positive change would be to avoid having judges judging their own country’s athletes.

It was an Olympic of firsts and America’s cultural diversity was showcased.

African-Americans won medals for the first time ever as Vonetta Flowers won a gold with mate Jill Bakken in the women’s two-man bobsled and Randy Jones and Garrett Hines teamed up with Todd Hays and Bill Schuffenhauer to claim a silver in the four-man bobsled.

And it was NASCAR Winston Cup driver Geoffrey Bodine who helped make three bobsled medals possible, ending a 46-year drought.

After watching our bobsled teams struggle in the Albertville Olympics in 1992, he decided to fund the research and development of our own bobsleds. At the time, we were driving hand-me-downs from other countries.

Bob Cuneo and the late Bob Vaillincourt teamed with Bodine to design the bobsleds and it paid off this year. Bodine said in a TV interview that the bobsled success was a bigger thrill for him than his recent third-place finish in the Daytona 500.

Latin-American speed skaters Derek Parra and Jennifer Rodriguez also won medals.

The hockey was magnificent and was a far superior product than the NHL’s dump-and-scrum style.

The U.S. men’s and women’s teams performed superbly until the gold medal games when our northern neighbors proved that hockey is still their No. 1 sport.

In both finals, the Canadians gave us a lesson in the art of back-checking and gapping.

They took away our skating room and the most impressive part of their performances was that their high-profile stars also bought into the defense-first philosophy.

Then there were lessons we learned from the images.

Liver transplant recipient Chris Klug, a bronze medalist in the snowboarding parallel giant slalom, taught us about the power of determination, a positive attitude and human resolve.

And Carrabassett Valley Academy grad Bode Miller taught all of us to stick with the style that made you a success. Don’t change.

His reckless, go-for-broke style may have cost him a medal in the slalom, but it rewarded him with silvers in the men’s combined and giant slalom.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 1-800-3100, 990-8231 or via email: lmahoney@bangordailynews.net