Utahns 'off to good start' in Moscow youth games

MOSCOW — Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt got a call from Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov Wednesday: Would Leavitt mind coming over to the mayor's office?

Sure, the governor said. So he hopped in the car and went over, and it wasn't until he was well on his way when he thought about a tie. He rummaged around his pockets and found one.

Good thing. Luzhkov's impromptu get-together turned out to be a major news conference, with Leavitt addressing 14 television cameras and the entire Russian nation about the Moscow-Utah Youth Games.

The games, more than a year in the making, officially kick off with Saturday's opening ceremonies. About 250 Utah athletes arrived in Moscow Thursday afternoon on a charter Aeroflot flight and are now, as you read this, recovering from jet lag.

"Hey, we're crossing 10 times zones," volleyball coach Bill MacLachlan said during the flight. "Most of these kids haven't done that."

They also almost surely have never encountered someone like Luzhkov, an energetic, unpredictable man who, with Leavitt, during the 2002 Winter Games, cooked up the idea of pitting Utah and Moscow high-school athletes against each other.

"Here we are a year and a half later, and an idea born over dinner is happening," Leavitt said. "It's very exciting."

Exciting things tend to happen around Luzhkov since he has a tendency to shoot from the hip, including keeping the governor's people guessing with regard to exact scheduling times, apparently because he simply hadn't gotten around to nailing them down.

"He's really an impetuous guy and the absolute boss of the city," said David Winder, Leavitt's assistant for post-Olympics projects.

Posters have sprouted up around Moscow touting the weeklong games, and a plethora of television cameras greeted the Utah athletes as they checked in to their hotel — including a few face-to-face encounters.

"I don't know what I'm doing," whispered swimmer Jamie Stubbs to bystanders during an interview with a Russian television station — in Russian.

It remains to be seen how many Muscovites will show up to the games' events. Besides putting on a good show for his guests, Luzhkov has a stake in attendance numbers, since he is touting his city as a host for the 2012 Summer Games.

In any case, so far, so good. After a 13-hour flight the athletes arrived safely Thursday afternoon, were ensconced in their hotel (which housed athletes during the 1980 Summer Games), and today are scheduled to tour Moscow's tourist highlights before getting down to business.

"We're off to a good start," Winder said.

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