Deseret News | Scandal still dominated news about the Olympics

From Deseret News archives:

Scandal still dominated news about the Olympics

But 2000 has seen lots of progress made by SLOC

By Lisa Riley Roche and Scott Taylor
Deseret News staff writers

Published: Sunday, Dec. 31, 2000 12:02 a.m. MST

0 comments

| E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + -

Page:
< Previous
1
2

There's been substantial progress made on SLOC's 2002 budget deficit, thanks to new sponsors signing on. Organizers now expect to balance their nearly $1.32 billion budget by next spring.

SLOC leaders celebrated the 500-day mark until the Feb. 8 start of the 2002 Games with a party in Salt Lake City and promises in Sydney that they've moved beyond the bribery scandal.

In December, plans were announced for the torch relay that will bring the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece, to the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium during the opening ceremonies of the Games.

Utah has already started to taste Olympic-flavored competition, with SLOC trying its hand this year at test events ranging from national championships to World Cup meets in skiing, hockey, curling and luge.

And then there was Sydney, where the United States experienced its lowest medal haul in 12 years but still won 39 gold medals and 97 overall to lead all nations.

Gardner, an adopted Utahn who grew up on an Afton, Wyo., farm and won a wrestling championship while at Ricks College, shocked the world by upsetting Alexander Karelin, the three-time Olympic champion.

Story continues below

Doug Mientkiewicz and Marcus Jensen, who left the Salt Lake Buzz in August to join the U.S. baseball team, played key roles in the Americans' gold rush. So did former Ogden Raptor Ben Sheets, who threw a shutout against longtime powerhouse Cuba in the championship game.

Utah Starzz forward and Taylorsville High multi-sport standout Natalie Williams won a gold medal with the U.S. women's basketball team. Also medaling in Sydney was former Skyline swimmer Courtney Johnson, who took a silver in women's water polo, which was making its Olympic debut.

Other Utahns who made a mark in Sydney: Logan Tom led the Americans to a surprising fourth-place finish while becoming the explosive-playing darling of the women's volleyball tournament less than two years after starring at Highland High; Park City resident Chris Witty became the ninth U.S. athlete to compete in both the Summer and Winter Games, finishing fifth in her track cycling event after collecting a pair of medals at the 1998 Nagano Games; Salt Lake archer Denise Parker ended her Olympic career, which started with a bronze medal as a 14-year-old at the 1988 Seoul Games; and BYU miler Jason Pyrah improved on his disappointing first-round elimination at the 1996 Atlanta Games by advancing past the first and second rounds and into the finals of the men's 1,500 meters.

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com; taylor@desnews.com