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But loudest of all were the Italians, with their three-beat
chant "I - tal - ia" ("ee-tal-ya");
a very festive bunch!
The final game came down to the Italians' A team and the
British B team, and the British supporters got pretty creative:
when the Italians chanted "I-tal-ia!" he would call
out, in rhythm, "Who are you?" so there was a neat
interchange. At the end, the Italians were rewarded with the
gold medal.
I spoke with the Finnish team: Rikard Kohomaki, Sixten Finnholm,
Esa Tero (whom you saw on TransWeb at the 1999 Winter World
Games), Kari Tanninen, Anne Helander (#1 in photo at right)
whom I had interviewed in Sydney, at the 1997 World Transplant
Games), Saila Sormunen, and captain Seppo Losonen (on phone
in photo at right). One of their number, Jerry Kettunen, had
injured his ankle in the quarter finals, but with some quick
first aid in the form of ice packs, he was able to complete
the game. Unfortunately, they lost to the Hungarians, but
the fact that all the teams were quite good must have been
some consolation.
I asked how they felt about the very loud Hungarian cheering
section when they were playing (was it distracting?), and
they said that they liked it - it gave them energy, and spurred
them to play harder. They also thought the Uruguayans were
"pretty feisty." The Finns wished that they had
played together more often; they had only played as a team
a few times prior to competing here.
When asked what their message to the world about donation
would be, they said simply "It works!"
"Do you want to say anything else?"
"No, not really. We Finns are shy people, you know."
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