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“One of the best Video games ... ever.”
“Excellent Video games.”
Excessive reward from the pinnacle of NBC Sports activities and the president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee. For me and for the individuals who helped host the 2002 Olympic Winter Video games, they touched our hearts and impressed — thanks each to the individuals of Utah and to the Olympians themselves.
We acquired off to a nasty begin. Allegations of wrongdoing had dampened the passion of all the neighborhood. Some even mentioned we should always give the Video games again. However Utah soldiered on, doing our greatest to revive the belief that had been positioned in us. We puzzled: Would volunteers now step ahead to fill the 25,000 posts that have been wanted? In any case, volunteers can be required to work 17 straight days within the chilly with no pay and no tickets. Once we opened the appliance portal, we acquired our reply: Virtually 50,000 signed up. Utah’s spirit of service was on full show.
The Utah spirit continued all through the Video games. Folks from Orem famous that the Kazakhstan ladies’s hockey workforce was shabbily outfitted for the competitors, in order that they raised funds and bought the coats, gloves and headgear that the gamers wanted. Folks in Heber Valley took it upon themselves to create and workers a cowboy village subsequent to the competitors website at Soldier Hole to offer our guests a style of the Previous West. One volunteer who drove the van for the Paralympic athletes from Armenia seen that that they had solely wooden skis, so he raised funds, negotiated with an tools firm and outfitted them with aggressive gear.
The Paralympic athletes claimed that that they had by no means earlier than seen such giant crowds at their occasions. Utah schoolchildren had chosen a visiting Paralympic workforce to help — memorizing their nationwide anthem, making their nation’s flag to wave and cheering at their competitions.
A few of Utah’s most well-known residents stepped ahead in methods I received’t neglect. Marie Osmond helped prepare our volunteers at quite a few periods. Marie and her brother Donny agreed to carry out, even behind the scenes, throughout our closing ceremonies. I ran into Larry and Gail Miller carrying their volunteer outfits as they organized the a whole bunch of volunteers on the Jazz area. The Eccles household donated the hundreds of thousands of dollars wanted to construct the Olympic cauldron. In reality, scores of Utahns donated to the Video games, which was a primary for any Olympics. I requested The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for thus many issues that President Gordon B. Hinckley started to chuckle, however we acquired all the things we requested, from services to new parking tons to the usage of a whole bunch of acres of land.
The Olympians themselves demonstrated nice qualities of the human spirit. Janica Kostelić, of war-torn Croatia, and her household had decided that regardless of their modest means she would turn out to be an Olympian. She competed all through Europe, typically sleeping afterward in a automotive as a result of they may not afford a resort. Simply months earlier than the Video games, she had had knee surgical procedure. However in Utah, she received gold within the slalom, the grand slalom and the mixed, and he or she additionally received silver within the super-G. Hers was probably the most dominant efficiency of a girl in Olympic historical past.
For Stefania Belmondo, of Italy, ours can be her fourth Olympics. All through the race, she stayed neck-and-neck together with her Russian cross-country competitor. Then her ski pole broke and he or she fell hopelessly behind. A French coach gave her a pole of his personal, nevertheless it was too huge. Lastly her coach reached her with a pole. Far behind the remainder of the sector and with solely a small phase within the race left, she exerted such power and dedication that she handed all of them, profitable gold — at age 33.
Vonetta Flowers was supplied a spot on bobsled No. 1 with probably the most adorned American pilot. However with exceptional loyalty to her longtime companion on sled No. 2, she demurred. When bobsled two received the gold, her tears have been matched by these of us who knew what she had put apart. Jimmy Shea was singularly accountable for getting me to persuade the IOC to place skeleton again into the Video games. When he took to the observe, snow slowed the course and all through his race his time lagged the chief. However within the last yards, he surged forward and received gold. He held excessive an image of his grandfather, an Olympic gold medalist from years previous. Derek Parra, a curler skater from Los Angeles, received gold and silver in lengthy observe speedskating. Admired for his singular enthusiasm and competitiveness, he was elected by the American Olympians to hold the American flag — which had as soon as flown over the World Commerce Heart — into the opening ceremonies. Paralympian Chris Waddell not solely competed, however he additionally promoted and popularized the Paralympics to individuals in Utah and throughout the nation. He nonetheless lives in our state.
Utah is now the middle of Olympic winter sports activities in North America. However it's far more than that for these of us who touched the Olympic Winter Video games of 2002. It's a place of reminiscences and inspiration, for right here the Video games did certainly “Gentle the Fireplace Inside.”