'02 venue: '04 thrill

Get ready for Olympic World.

This summer the Utah Olympic Park near Park City will feature new thrill rides, intended to give visitors to the 2002 Winter Games venue a chance to experience some of the same sensations as world-class bobsledders, ski jumpers and other athletes.

Even better for the private foundation running the park, the attractions are also expected to generate much-needed revenue. The foundation, Olympic Parks of Utah, had to slash $1.6 million in costs earlier this year to balance its budget.

The cuts, which included several sports programs that weren't self-supporting, combined with the addition of money-making activities for the general public, represents a major shift in the management of the park.

No longer is the focus chiefly on providing training facilities for elite athletes or those who aspire to be such. Now, foundation directors are looking at the bottom line in an effort to stay out of the red for good.

"It takes a little getting used to this concept," foundation president John Bennion, foundation president. "We're trying hard to not characterize it as a mini-Disneyland. We would like to call it an action park rather than a theme park."

And action is the operative word. After Bennion took over the foundation last fall, he discovered that there wasn't much for visitors to do at the park once they'd paid their admission and toured the museum. Sure, there were pricey bobsled rides year-round as well as amateur sports camps that lasted a day or more. There were also regular freestyle skier shows in the summer, when athletes jump into the park's pool instead of onto snow.

But something just about anybody with enough nerve could do at a moderate price? Not until this year. By the end of this summer, park visitors will be able to zoom down the side of the ski jumps, push a wheeled bobsled, leap on a bungee or float in a hot air balloon.

The most dramatic addition to the park will be two sets of "zip lines" alongside the massive ski jump hills that will carry riders secured in a harness to the bottom at speeds of up to 60 mph.

One set of four lines will start at the top of the 120-meter hill, while the other set will begin at a lower elevation. Bennion said there's a chance that riders may head down at the same time ski jumpers are training — the plastic-covered jumps are used year-round for training.

"We want this very much to be something that gives you the thrill of the sport," Bennion said. "We haven't worked out all the details, but (the ski jumpers) think this is great. . . . It gives them more exposure."