Mostly Thumbs Up

It isn’t easy to say goodbye to something that has been such a part of our lives for, lo, these many . . . alright, these couple of weeks.

But if a lesson has been learned from these Olympic Games, it is that grit and the human spirit will triumph over adversity.

That, and everybody’s a critic.

With this in mind, we gave Southern Californians a chance Sunday to proffer some last-minute commentary and to rate the games on the same scale that Olympic judges use to rate the athletes.

The scores ranged from a 9.0 (from a bright-eyed teenager) to a measly 2.63 (from a transplanted New Yorker who belittles California pizza too). But rules dictate, of course, that the highest and lowest scores must be thrown out.

So overall there was the sort of consensus that has been building around local water coolers for 14 days--loved the athletes, liked the opening ceremonies, hated the jingoism and the schmaltz. The upshot: a solid 6.78--maybe good for a bronze.

“I thought they were a success when it came to artistic merit,” joked Wesley Kumagai, 42, “but technically, there was a lot they could have improved upon.”

Sitting outside a curry restaurant in Little Tokyo where his lawyer and his family had just had lunch, the La Canada Flintridge lawyer lauded the opening ceremonies and the prowess of the U.S. women’s basketball team.

But that TV coverage had left him cold. “I can’t believe somebody out there thought there wasn’t enough rhythmic gymnastics,” he griped.

The downtown L.A. score: 7.5.

On the lively strip of Latino commerce that is Fourth Street in Santa Ana, 17-year-old Freddie Labra, in town for the day from Laguna Beach, thought the games were “pretty good.” The teenager relished the memory of tennis idol Andre Agassi romping through his matches, and was touched by the spectacle of Muhammed Ali lighting the Olympic torch.

But he had to deduct a point for incompleteness, he sighed, because NBC managed to all but conceal his favorite sport--soccer.

Thus, the score from the Sunday mercado: a winning 9.0.

At Koreatown’s Olympic Golf Driving Range on Olympic Boulevard, the buzz among duffers was how one-sided TV coverage had been in its focus on American athletes. It seemed, huffed general manager John Lee, as if no other nation was competing in the games.

“Do we have to fly to Korea to see any coverage of the Korean players?” said Lee, watching dozen of customers drive golf balls onto the green. And there should have been less commercialism and fewer “unnecessary games.” (“Badminton,” Lee sneered).

The Koreatown score: 8.0.

In Huntington Beach, where the beach crowd spent a breezy Sunday watching the Air Touch Pro surfing contest from the pier, Joseph Arseneault, 61, of Seal Beach likewise complained that “it seemed I missed a lot of stuff I wanted to see.”

He saw almost no boxing, a personal favorite, and virtually no weightlifting. “I used to really like watching those Russians struggle with those huge weights,” he sighed.

But there was the consolation of Gail Devers claiming the women’s 100-meter dash, and Michael Johnson flying down the track in those golden shoes.

The score from the pier: 5.0.

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Meanwhile, outside a Chinese restaurant in Monterey Park, Ngy Heng, a 20-year-old biology major at UCLA, was moved by the determination of gymnast Kerri Strug. The Centennial Park bombing disturbed him, he said, but he was choosing not to think about it because “I don’t want to remember the bad stuff.”

He did deduct points for the overload of “tragic little stories,” and the sappy asides of announcer John Tesh. And the Carl Lewis controversy was overdone, he said. His brother and cousin agreed.

The dim sum score: 7.0.

Transplanted New Yorker Richard Boehm boycotted the games on the principle that the Olympics are not true sports. The Santa Monica film editor said he limited his viewing to those moments when he walked by the TV set as his wife and son watched in the living room.

Nonetheless, as we said, everyone’s a critic, and Boehm’s unique take on the games was this: In future, all events involving “circus skills”--such as rhythmic gymnastics--should be tossed out. Otherwise, he said, Olympic organizers should give the horses the medals in the equestrian events, and open the venues to animal acts.

And he had some advice for the Eastern bloc, whose dissolution made it appear that former Soviet countries fared poorly, gold medal-wise. “I think Belarus and all the Stans--Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan--should get back together with Russia, and they’d clobber the U.S. the next time,” Boehm said.

The ex-N.Y. score: 2.63.

The Soviets themselves were much more generous and more pleased with the games. At Uzbekistan A Unique Restaurant in Hollywood, the vegetarian Olympic Shishkebab Special ($8.50) has sold well, said waitress Tatyana Legovin.

The waitress noted with satisfaction that Uzbekistan won a silver medal--in men’s middleweight judo. And, she said, the opening ceremonies weren’t bad.

The Russian expatriate score: 8.0.

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Some fans found it difficult to quantify their feelings about the games. Hanna, an Ethiopian travel agent who would give only her first name, called the games “grand,” but could not reduce them to a score. The NBC telecast, however, was another matter.

“They only show the victories of the Americans only, even if it’s a silver or bronze,” she said as she sipped coffee and watched the TV at the bar in Nyala, an Ethiopian restaurant on Fairfax Avenue.

“Believe me, we really enjoy it when the Americans win. We live in America after all, and it’s here that we make our bread-and-butter. But we want them to show other winners too.”

Her score, on the coverage only: a 4.0.

Finally, at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the Mid-Wilshire district, the games tasted bittersweet.

Some felt these centennial games should have gone back to Greece. Others were still grumbling about how, 100 days ago, as torchbearers started their journey to Atlanta from Los Angeles, they had gotten off course and stood up more than 600 members of the church, not to mention the red carpet, prepared food, Greek band and a blessing for the torchbearer who never showed up.

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After a lunch Sunday in which the International Olympic Committee tried to make amends by having Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan present a torch to the church, Theo J. Pastras had mixed emotions about these Olympics.

“It would have been nice to have the games in Greece. Athens couldn’t have been much worse,” said Pastras, whose father emigrated from Greece. With its carnival of commercialism, he said, “Atlanta went to the extreme. It’s almost like a pagan festival.” Still, what Greek can completely diss the Olympics?

The score from the folks who started it all: 8.0.

Times staff writers Michael G. Wagner and Sonia Nazario contributed to this report.