Salt Lake's Winter Games investment pays off in Vancouver

PARK CITY — Former Salt Lake Olympics bid boss Tom Welch continues to prize the words — his words, ironically — carefully handwritten on a card and accompanied by a $10 donation.

It came to him from a then-89-year-old supporter of bringing the Winter Games to Utah and quoted a part of a pep talk that Welch had delivered earlier in Ogden. "I never said it would be easy; I said it would be worth it," reads the card that Welch has kept close by for a quarter-century.

For someone whose Olympics experience has been a personal crucible, Welch is finally and fully reconciled with those sentiments of the past, especially after seeing his long-term vision of U.S. athletes dominating winter sports validated nightly from Vancouver last month.

Welch didn't attend the 2010 Games, preferring to watch like most Utahns from the comfort of his home on a big-screen TV. That TV also happens to stand next to a fireplace surrounded by a heavy mantle adorned by carvings of the Olympic rings and scenes of winter sports.

"When I remodeled my Park City condo in the 1980s, I really wondered at the end of this journey if I'd really want to see the Olympic rings carved in that mantle," said Welch, who's currently engaged in several endeavors, including some international business ventures. "But Vancouver answered that question, and I can tell you I genuinely enjoyed seeing the rings there."

Welch takes tremendous satisfaction — as he says all Utahns should — knowing the road the U.S. team traveled en route to its record-breaking 37-medals performance passed through the heart of the Wasatch.

"I was a bit player in all of this, but I found real satisfaction watching these Games," said Welch, with a hint of emotion in his voice. "I'm especially proud of the number of Utahns growing up to compete (in Vancouver) that might never have had the chance if we hadn't brought the facilities and the Games to Salt Lake City. We also saw so many of our own — adopted and homegrown — standing on the podium being awarded medals."

Like Park City native Brett Camerota, who along with transplanted teammates Billy Demong, Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane took silver in the nordic combined relay — a first for the U.S. team.

Camerota took up ski jumping shortly after moving to Park City at the age of 6 and was really bitten by the bug after watching the 2002 Games up close, where he met his future teammates. Demong, Lodwick and Spillane all decided living and training together might bolster teamwork in the hopes of earning that elusive first nordic combined medal.