While the Olympic flame smacks down love across America, folks in Minnesota and the Dakotas are left stone cold, though the Body is hot and bothered.
The 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games nationwide torch relay isn't stretching to those three northern Great Plains states. Nor is it crossing the Pacific Ocean to sunny Hawaii.
In the winter sports mecca of Minnesota, though, Gov. Jesse Ventura is hopping mad. The former professional wrestler known as "the Body" says he is offended by the snub and intends to use his high profile to make a stink about it.
"We're going to do what we can to change the parade route," he told The Associated Press.
Ventura spokesman John Wodele said the governor plans to send a letter to Olympic officials expressing his dismay, though he acknowledges it's too late to change anything.
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee took some flak locally over leaving those four states out Tuesday as the torch began its winding 13,500-mile route from Atlanta. One irate caller told a SLOC torch relay worker she no longer supports the Olympics.
While the flame won't pass through those states, it will pass through the hands of some their residents running in other locales.
Timing, logistics and expense kept the relay from hitting all 50 states, SLOC officials said.
"We've got 65 days to bring the flame to as many people as we possibly can," said Mark Walker, who is on the relay. "It has to arrive in Salt Lake City in February."
Ventura's bluster probably won't get far with Olympic organizers. SLOC spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said the route set 18 months ago can't be changed at this point.
Perhaps Ventura and SLOC President Mitt Romney could wrestle for it. The Body vs. the Mittigator.
"I think Jesse would win," Shaw said.
How about some verbal sparring then? "I think Mitt would win that one."
"I'm sure we could come up with some suggestions or solutions," Wodele said with a laugh.
Ventura, he said, has a "romantic attraction" to the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team, and the Olympics stir his patriotic blood.
The Minnesota governor told the AP it wouldn't upset him as much if this were the Summer Olympics. But he was dumbfounded that the torch would bypass a cold-weather state that is home to many past and prospective U.S. Winter Olympic athletes.
"There's places in the country that wouldn't know a snowflake if it landed on their head," he said.
North Dakota wants no part of any Olympic flame ruckus.
"I don't know that that's where we want to go," said Laura Hess, a spokeswoman for the governor's office.
Deena Winter, city editor for the Bismarck Tribune, isn't aware of any hard feelings about the state being left out.
"For some reason, people in North Dakota don't seem to give a rip about it," she said. "We're pretty docile here. We put up with quite a bit."
Neighboring South Dakota isn't troubled either.
Said Gov. Bill Janklow through a spokesman, "The most important thing is that the Olympic torch get to Utah. I don't care what road it takes."
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