You're reading this Tuesday, Seoul time. I think.
Never has a sporting event caused more confusion in the Deseret News sports department than the just-completed Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.I think they're completed. Aren't they?
The 16-hour time difference usually meant events were taking place on another day than the day it was in the United States. It got interesting when readers were able to read the results of events taking place Saturday afternoon in Seoul in Saturday morning's Deseret News.
It also got interesting when events held in the late afternoon in Seoul on the weekend were late at night the night before - got that? - in Utah. It created havoc with deadlines. The women's team archery final, for example, featuring Utahn Denise Parker, was held 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Seoul, which meant 10:30 p.m. MDT Friday. There was no way to get it for the first edition deadline - 9:30 p.m. - and it had to be chased in after metro edition deadline -midnight.
Then, all the national wire service writers in their stories from Seoul would say something like, "The United States will meet the Soviet Union for the gold medal in volleyball Sunday," which meant the match would be televised in prime time Saturday.
We decided to leave the dates the way the writers had them, rather than shifting everything to U.S. time. The exception was events involving the five Utah Olympians - Denise Parker, Missy Marlowe, Henry Marsh, Doug Padilla and Ed Eyestone. We included Mountain Daylight Time for them.
Time shifts always seem to be confusing (I know, there are some math majors out there who will claim they are no problem. Of course they're also the same guys who can't get to the car without the ice cream falling off the cone).
I recall calling our BYU football writer, Doug Robinson, a few years ago when he was in Hawaii covering a Cougar-Rainbow game. I needed to get some information to him the day before the game so I gave him a call at 8 a.m. Utah time, making sure he'd had plenty of time to sleep after a long plane ride.
With the four-hour time difference that made it noon in Hawaii. I called his room and the phone rang 20 times. Finally this groggy voice answered. "Loooow," he moaned.
"Hey, how come you're not at the beach," I joked. "What are you doing hanging around the hotel at noon?"
"It's 4 a.m. here," he responded.
"Oh, sorry," I said.
We're not sorry the madness of Seoul time is behind us.
The next Summer Olympics are in Barcelona, Spain. Not exactly U.S. time. But then that's not worth worrying about until 1992.