Winter event rejuvenates Utahns' Olympic spirit

In the days leading up to the second anniversary of the 2002 Winter Games, foreign athletes once again could be spotted on Salt Lake City streets and at the state's Olympic venues.

Unlike the Olympics, though, these athletes were all from the same country, here to compete in the winter version of the Moscow-Utah Youth Games. Still, glimpses of them in their red-and-white team uniforms sparked memories for many.

So has seeing the Olympic cauldron at the University of Utah reignited for the youth games. The flame was lit for the first time two years ago today — on Feb. 8, 2002 — to mark the start of Salt Lake's Olympics.

For Utah sports leaders, however, hosting the event that ended Saturday wasn't about pining for past glory. Instead, they're trying to show that the state can continue to host world-class competitions — even, possibly, another Olympics.

"Obviously, it's not the scope of the Olympics. But at the same time, it's a large enough scope where it mimics a lot of the same kind of things required for the Olympics," Utah Sports Commission President Jeff Robbins said of the youth games.

The event attracted about 300 Russians, compared to the tens of thousands who came to Utah from around the world in 2002. Functions such as transportation and competition regulation are the same as for the Olympics, Robbins said, except "at more of a micro level."

The reputation that Utah earned from putting on what has been widely acknowledged as the best-ever Winter Olympics was reinforced by the success of the youth games, another boost for an industry that Robbins said is worth $2 billion annually to Utah.

Future possibilities

Such events are part of Utah's strategy to ensure that the state will be well-positioned to bid for major sporting events in the future. Those could include one of the sporting world's largest draws, the soccer World Cup, and another Olympics, maybe as soon as 2022.

But even as the state's sport leaders dream big, budgets for Olympic facilities are getting smaller as the overseers of the ski jumps, bobsled track and speed-skating oval struggle to balance the books.

The three facilities under the control of the private foundation that is now called Olympic Parks of Utah were running several million dollars in debt annually despite an endowment estimated to reach $75 million from the 2002 Winter Games surplus.