OLYMPIC FANS HERE GATHER TO TAKE IN ACTION

What better way to spend Valentine's Day than celebrating over a few beers at BG's Old Tyme Deli and Saloon, watching live coverage of the Olympics.

That is what one group of sports fans was doing Monday evening, instead of sitting at home.

"I came down here to watch the Olympics with other people," said Tom Brennecke, who had staked out his territory at the bar early Monday evening. "It's just not the same watching it at home by yourself. There's no one to cheer or boo with."

Brennecke is a sports fan -- he especially likes NASCAR racing -- but when the Olympics are on, all other sports are benched.

"I really like the doubles skating -- especially those little outfits the women wear," said Brennecke. "If they were wearing sweat suits, I wouldn't watch them anymore."

The most ridiculous Olympic sport, in Brennecke's opinion, is the luge.

"I don't see how anyone would want to go that fast down an ice slope, feet first," he said. "They can't possibly see anything but their toes."

Nathan Mathis' favorite Olympic sport is bobsledding, even though he has not yet seen any coverage of the event. And Mathis' least favorite sport?

"Anything that Tonya Harding is in," he said. "I think she's as guilty as sin and I don't think they should have let her on the team. I'm not going to watch her skate.

"But I do like that Nancy Kerrigan woman," he added. "I hope she wins."

Mathis enjoys watching other sports, too. He is a big hockey fan.

"I was so upset (Sunday) when the United States lost a point to France," he said. "What do they know about hockey?"

Ron Greaser is another hockey fan who is tuned in to the Olympic action. He sacrifices his other sports loves for two weeks to watch the best athletes in the world compete.

"You only get to see this kind of thing every four years, so it's really something special," he said. "Watching the Olympics just gives you that feeling. You want to watch your country do well against other countries...no matter what is going on."

Since Greaser has dabbled in skiing, he has a real appreciation for the skill and agility of the participants.

"I don't know how they do that," he said. "I know how hard it is just going down a simple slope. They are flying down some of the roughest slopes in the world at 80 miles per hour -- that's crazy."

Tina McDowell, who was at BG's Monday with her husband, is not a sports fan.

"I like the ice skating in the Olympics, though," she said. "It's exciting; something you don't get to see every day.

"But I don't like Tonya Harding at all," she said. "I don't think she should get to compete. That whole incident really took something away from the American team."

Pete Seabaugh does not really care one way or another what did or did not transpire on the Olympic figure skating team -- he's a speed skating fan.

"Those guys can go so fast around that track, it's incredible," said Seabaugh. "I also like bobsledding. They really move, too."

Seabaugh's least favorite Olympic event is the biathlon -- where athletes compete in cross-country skiing and target shooting. He objects to the way it is televised.

"When you see biathletes on TV, you don't really get a sense of what the sport is about," he said. "It's a very challenging, tiring event, but all they show you is them skiing a little and then shooting at the targets.

"I guess you'd have to be there to get the full effect of that event," he said.

Restaurants all over town, including BG's, Port Cape West, Jeremiah's and Garfield's, are airing the Olympics in their bar area.

"We turn the Olympics on at noon and they stay on until we close," said Karen Brinkley, a bartender at BG's. "We show other sporting events too, but people really seem to get a kick out of watching the Olympics."