A Wary Salt Lake City Looks for Its Game Face

There are no banners flying on downtown streets, no colorful flags outlined against the bare brown mountains and vast blue sky. There are no obvious signs that 100 days from now--if all goes as planned--the world’s attention will be focused on this city eager to prove its world-class status as host of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

The absence of reminders might explain why customers are so scarce in the Dare to Dream Olympic collectible store despite its prime Main Street location. Or why only four or five shoppers were in the Olympic Spirit store during a recent lunch hour at the otherwise bustling Crossroads Plaza mall on an unseasonably warm October afternoon.

Certainly, there are many who are eagerly anticipating the Olympic Games: Tickets to Olympic events are selling for hefty sums on Internet auction sites and there are 30,000 Olympic volunteers. But there is also a sense of wariness in this community, which, like so many others, was stunned by the events of Sept. 11.

“I wish they weren’t coming,” said Bob Haslam of Salt Lake City, a theater stagehand who is considering leaving town during the Games. “It has crossed my mind that we could be a target. This city has been laid back for so long, I don’t know what it will do.”

Since the attacks, the federal government has committed an additional $40 million to the $270 million total already earmarked to safeguard athletes and fans, making it likely to be the most costly security plan ever launched for a Winter Olympics. Still, there is a fear that the Games, designed to celebrate peace and fair play, could draw the attention of terrorists seeking global notoriety, which is why some residents remain on edge.

After students at nearby Kearns High School circulated a petition requesting that their school be closed during the Games for safety’s sake, school board officials sent letters to their parents telling them that the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command is addressing their concerns.

Olympic Torch to Be Lighted Feb. 8

Protesters unsuccessfully fought the organizing committee’s plans to temporarily plant a 160-foot-high set of Olympic rings on poles in the nearby mountains, citing environmental and safety concerns. “It’s like putting a bull’s-eye up there for the terrorists to aim at,” Trevor Wortley, of Bountiful, wrote in a letter to a local newspaper.

Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, insist the Games will go forward and the Olympic torch will be lighted at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Feb. 8, opening the 17-day event.

Although there is a $150-million insurance policy in the event of cancellation, that scenario has not been considered during organizers’ discussions of how they will deal with the possibilities of attacks by air, bomb and bioterrorism.

“It’s in the interest of the nation to have the Games,” said Romney, who pledged that the organizing committee will charter planes to bring athletes to Salt Lake City should another incident freeze the international air transport system. “You can’t slow down the Olympics. I’m sure there are many people in Utah saying, ‘I wish we didn’t have the Games.’ People who were Olympic supporters may not be anymore. We took on the responsibility of hosting and, darn it, we’re going to host it.”

Organizers expect to take in $180 million in ticket sales, more than double the $80 million at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Romney said fewer than 20 people have asked for refunds out of 45,000 ticket orders, and only a few of those requests were linked to fears of terrorism. Of the 30,000 volunteers, organizers say none has dropped out.

“I think everyone’s a little worried about it, but hopefully they will increase security so it shouldn’t be a problem,” said Daniel Bott, a local student who said he hopes to attend some Olympic events. “I’m [more] worried about parking, especially downtown. It’s bad enough as it is.”

If the United States continues its war on terrorism over the next 100 days, the Salt Lake City Games will be the first held in a country at war. The Olympics were not held in 1916 because of World War I, or in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II.

There is no exact historical parallel to the tensions that exist today; the closest comparison might be the anxiety that preceded the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. John MacAloon, professor of social sciences at the University of Chicago and an Olympic anthropologist, said there were fears that North Korea might attack the festivities because negotiations to hold a joint Games between North and South Korea had failed.

But fears of an attack in Salt Lake City are most likely unfounded.

“It’s very doubtful the Games themselves are at any serious risk of becoming the object of terrorist action,” MacAloon said. “Since 1972 [when the Black September terrorist group killed a group of Israeli athletes], no organized terrorist group has made an organized assault on the Olympics.”

But even if there are no attacks on Salt Lake City, the illusion of being safe at the Olympics, or anywhere else, has been shattered. This city once wondered whether its Games would be tainted by the vote-buying scandal that surrounded its bid; now, it must wonder if its Games will be remembered for having turned a joyous gathering into an armed camp.

Romney, however, contends these Games will be remembered for having shown the best of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

“In the history of the Olympic movement, Salt Lake City will have a very significant position,” he said. “We’ll have wonderful celebrations, as do other Games, but people will realize, ‘Boy, they’re tough. It was tough for them in Salt Lake. They started off in a deep hole [because of the scandal and financial woes] and the world became a very troubled place, but Salt Lake carried off the Games with aplomb.’ . . . I didn’t expect that to be our legacy, but the world has changed.”

The new post-Sept. 11 Olympic world will include uniformed state and federal law enforcement officers at venues, as well as spectators passing through metal detectors and being subjected to searches.

Spectators have already been warned to leave at home backpacks, cans and bottles because those items will impede the inspection process. Security officials will sweep venue ventilation systems to check for anthrax and, just in case, local health officials plan to stockpile antibiotics.

Athletes at the Olympic Village on the University of Utah campus will eat and sleep in a fortress protected by a 10-foot fence and 500 surveillance cameras. National Guard troops will patrol Salt Lake International Airport with rifles.

The airport might be closed when events are taking place and large crowds are gathered, to lessen the possibility of aerial attack. Nearby Hill Air Force Base will provide protection with F-16s.

In reaction to Sept. 11, downtown celebrations at which athletes and spectators were to have mingled have been canceled. Nor will the Salt Lake Games include open-air concerts, which have been moved indoors and behind security perimeters.

There will be no community celebration today to mark the 100-day countdown, as there was for the 500-day countdown--although that was part of a calculated plan to save money, Romney said.

Decorations will appear when the Games begin, he said, and there will be banners and signs on streets leading to venues. Downtown buildings will be wrapped from roof to ground floor with huge, illuminated images of athletes rendered on fabric.

“It will seem and feel like an Olympic city,” Romney said.

Protecting athletes, officials and spectators is in the hands of many agencies, but an effort is being made to coordinate plans to avoid the confusion that developed over who was in charge at the 1996 Atlanta Games when a bomb exploded in a park outside the Olympic security perimeter and killed a woman.

The Secret Service has primary responsibility for these Games, which have been designated a national special security event. That gives organizers access to federal aid, personnel and equipment to augment their original security plans.

The initial budget called for $200 million in federal spending, $35 million from the state of Utah and $35 million from the organizing committee, but the federal tab will rise by about $40 million to implement additional measures recommended by the Secret Service.

Security Personnel to Outnumber Athletes

Security personnel will far outnumber the 2,500 competitors.

There will be about 2,000 military personnel on site, up from the original 1,400, and about 1,000 FBI agents. Many security officers will be in plainclothes, but more than 2,400 state, local and out-of-state volunteer police officers will wear highly visible yellow and black uniforms.

Athletes welcome the protection.

“It’s scary,” said Michael Weiss, two-time U.S. men’s figure skating champion. “Especially for me, because I have two kids. I live in Washington, D.C., and that’s a targeted place with all the anthrax. I am nervous, but you can’t live in fear.”

Said U.S. speedskater Casey FitzRandolph: “We’ve been training more or less our whole lives for this February, but you realize that, whether you win or lose in February, there are more important things in life.”

On a lesser level, security measures implemented after Sept. 11 have created inconveniences for already jittery athletes. A ban on carrying sharp instruments on board U.S. airlines has forced figure skaters and speedskaters to check or ship their precious blades and hope they don’t get lost.

Because of security concerns, U.S. winter sports athletes were pulled out of competitions in China, Japan, Germany and Finland, and many foreign athletes who planned to train at Salt Lake City venues to become acclimated to the altitude have delayed or canceled those trips.

The scars of Sept. 11 are especially raw for some prospective Olympians. Kathleen Kauth, a forward on the U.S. women’s hockey team, lost her father, Don, who was killed in the World Trade Center. Kauth’s coach, Ben Smith, was an acquaintance of Mark Bavis, the Los Angeles Kings scout and former Boston University hockey player who died aboard the second plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.

U.S. freestyle aerial skier Emily Cook had a cousin who was a flight attendant on the first hijacked plane steered into the towers. Others who were not directly affected by the tragedies acknowledge they were rattled and lost focus for days or weeks. Many have since resolved to pursue success as an expression of defiance and patriotism.

“You just keep training and try really hard, so when we get on the medal stand and represent our country, it will mean so much more,” Cook said. “We’ve always worn the red, white and blue, but for me, it means more now.”

It means enough for skier Picabo Street to have lobbied for the honor of carrying the U.S. flag into the Opening Ceremony.

“If I’m a target, there’s not much little old me can do,” she said. “But if a chance comes to make America proud, I’m going to be ready.”

The best experience would be a safe one. And there are those who believe staging the Games, even under the shadow of heavy security, is the right thing to do.

“I believe when the torch is lit in Greece and lands in Atlanta [Dec. 4] and is going around the country, there will be a kindling of the [Olympic] spirit,” Romney said, “and with more of a fundamental meaning than it had in the past, by virtue of the events of Sept. 11.

“Salt Lake surely knows how to celebrate humanity, which is the Olympic motto, and I believe people here know how to be gracious hosts and dedicated volunteers. And that’s perhaps fitting in a time like this.

“Surely, as people come, we’ll be cheering athletes, but it’s not just party time. There will be a profound meaning to each victory, and I think that can be poignantly displayed at Salt Lake.”