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Samantha Hayes ReportingWhen your favorite skier is whizzing by at the speed of light, clapping two mittens together just doesn't do. So, like the Salt Lake Games and many Winter Olympics before it, the cow bell is clanging loudly in Torino.
The ensigna may be different for the Torino games, but the effect is the same when the crowds ring this mountain noise maker. There is nothing on the slopes that sounds quite like the cacophony of cowbells.
And nobody looks quite like the lady who sells them. Her uniform is sort of Elisabeth Halvorson's way of fulfilling a childhood dream.
Elisabeth Halvorson, Official Olympic Cow Bell Provider: "When I was seven years old, I decided I wanted to be in the Olympics. But when I was at a race camp, the speed freaked me out. So I ended up doing ski patrol and I was a ski bum at Alta."
Turns out she's a better at bells.
Elisabeth Halvorson: "Now this is my way of being in the Olympics. I cheer on all the athletes yahhhhh!"
If it sounds obnoxious, that's the point. It's the only thing the athletes can hear. When they wear their helmets they can't hear people cheering, so the whole idea is to support the athletes through cheering, and to continue the tradition.
Elisabeth Halvorson: "It's a tradition that started in Switzerland centuries ago. And this bell was the number one produce during the Lillehammer games; we were the number two most popular item in Salt Lake behind the Roots beret."
Halvorson says the bells are made out of bullet casings recycled from the Norwegian military practice range.
