| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Bid leaders appeared to be squeaky-clean
Deseret News Archives - June 14, 2001
Six years ago in Budapest, Hungary, members of the team behind Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Games appeared to be as squeaky-clean as the community they represented.
Sure, there were cowboy hats and other gifts handed out to International Olympic Committee members before the IOC's vote on June 16, 1995, to select a host city.
But the bid team worked hard to reinforce the image of Salt Lake City as a wholesome place eager to welcome the world.
They went so far as to invite reporters to listen in on a last-minute strategy session where the decision was made to have hundreds of flag-waving Utahns line a bridge over the Danube River that IOC members would cross on their way to the vote.
No mention was made at the meeting of the suitcases stuffed with cash and expensive gifts or promises of lavish trips and college scholarships that government prosecutors now allege were used to buy the IOC's vote.
Utahns believed then that the message members of the bid team carried to the far corners of the globe was what Salt Lake City really had to offer—its airport, freeways, sports facilities and hospitality industry. And its people, a devout and dynamic young population.
Whatever was done—and whoever knew about it—Salt Lake City trounced its competition.
IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch's announcement of the vote was drowned out in both Budapest and Salt Lake City by the wild cheers of bid boosters. Including the governor's.
"I realized that I was participating in one of the few moments in the history of the state when everybody's heart was beating hard together," Gov. Mike Leavitt said. "It didn't matter where you were, . . . if you pulled over to the side of the road in your car to listen, if you huddled around the television at work, or you had your children in the family room, the same thing was happening."
IOC Vice President Anita DeFrantz of the United States celebrated alongside the Utah team. "I was excited and confident when Salt Lake City won," DeFrantz said. "I was excited for the athletes and the world and for the U.S. athletes."
She said she was confident "because I knew the venues would be wonderful for the athletes. I knew the infrastructure was in place and I was confident that the Olympic overlay, the extra things for the Games, would be finished on time."
Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney, who was years away from becoming involved in the Olympics, said he greeted the news with some ambivalence even though he has family ties to Utah and attended Brigham Young University.
"You know, the good news is the Olympics are coming. The bad news is, so are a lot of people who might want to stay," Romney recalled thinking then. "I didn't know how the Olympics would affect the state."
Thanks to the scandal that surfaced in late 1998, neither did even those most closely connected to the bid.
The scandal's fallout:
It's unclear how many people knew back then about the vote-buying campaign, although former bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, who face federal charges in connection with the bid, say they did not act alone.
Still, six years later Utahns continue to embrace the Olympics despite the knowledge that the bid effort may not have been as innocent as it attempted to portray the state's residents—and despite the organizing committee's other trials since the Games were awarded.
"There was a period where all of us left our Olympic jackets hanging in the closet," Leavitt said.
"People are wearing them again. . . . There's a spirit of real optimism and excitement and I think it will do nothing but build."
Romney, a Boston venture capitalist who took over the troubled organizing committee at the height of the scandal, said the allegations that Salt Lake tried to buy IOC votes actually boosted local support for the Games.
"The response of Utahns to the Games has, in my view, been more enthusiastic and more involved than perhaps if the scandal had not happened," Romney said, describing Utahns'attitude as, "we've got to come together and dig out from the hole we're in."
Even Romney had his doubts about getting involved with what had become tainted Games.
"Obviously, I changed my mind and said, 'It's in trouble and I'm going to get in there and make it as successful as I can.' I think Utahns have gone through the same feelings."
Short-lived euphoria:
The governor said the shared Olympic experience among Utahns has included some bad times, too. "It's been not just a lot of work, but it's been a lot of heartache, there's been hardship, there's been pain."
Even before the bid scandal broke—and even before Welch's personal troubles led to his resignation as SLOC president more than a year earlier—the euphoria over Samaranch's announcement of Salt Lake City's win was engulfed by the enormity of the task ahead.
"I certainly didn't fully understand the impact of those words being uttered," said Randy Dryer, head of the Utah Sports Authority, the state agency that built the bobsled, luge and skeleton track and ski jumps near Park City and the speedskating oval in Kearns.
"The euphoria is short-lived in the sense of the old adage, 'Be careful of what you wish for, sometimes you may get it,' " he said. "I thought it was the end of a long road. Really, it was just he beginning of a huge undertaking."
All Olympic cities go through a similar transition, shifting from bidding to organizing and having to deal with the reality of staging what has become a $1 billion-plus, two-week event that attracts an audience of millions of people around the world.
It was supposed to be easier for Salt Lake City, since so many facilities were already built. After some behind-the-scenes wrangling, Welch, who led the bid team, took over the organizing committee with Johnson at his side.
Problems began surfacing early on. It took much longer than anyone expected to finalize a joint marketing agreement between SLOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee, slowing the sale of much-needed sponsorships.
Organizers were pressured to be more inclusive, especially of the state's poor and disabled communities. Several venues were changed. Cross-country skiing and biathlon, for instance, moved from the Mountain Dell Golf Course to Wasatch Mountain State Park near Midway.
There were budget issues, too, as the total price tag for the Games climbed beyond $1 billion. A controversial severance package for Welch, who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor spouse-abuse charge, cost $1 million.
The IOC started complaining in early 1998 that organizers were not filling key positions in sports and other areas quickly enough and needed to pick up the pace. At home, there were concerns that SLOC was being too secretive.
Then came the scandal.
Utah's legacy:
Just before Thanksgiving 1998, a letter surfaced detailing a payment of more than $10,000 to the daughter of a now-deceased member of the IOC from Cameroon, sparking what became a worldwide scandal.
It will once again be in the headlines when Welch and Johnson go to court next month on felony charges of fraud, conspiracy and racketeering in connection with the scholarships, cash, gifts and trips given to IOC members and their families during the bid.
Welch has already scuffled publicly with the governor, demanding Leavitt apologize for claiming to have no knowledge of what went on during the bid. It's a battle that is expected to continue in the courtroom.
Leavitt said the trial won't dampen public enthusiasm for the Olympics, at least not significantly.
"It's something we all wish was over but we just have to work through it," he said.
By the end of the year, when the Olympic flame arrives in the United States, the governor said the level of excitement "will be unlike anything we have ever experienced. . . . It will be reshaping not just the way the world sees us, but the way we see ourselves."
Romney said the Olympics will be a learning experience for Utahns. "I think we will see ourselves as others see us," he said. "I think we can take great pride in who we are. I think we can learn from what others see."
DeFrantz said what's led up to the Games will soon be history and it will be up to "the Olympians, the media and the spectators of the world" to decide how Utah is remembered for the event itself.
Not everyone believes the Olympics are causing a dramatic shift in the state's image.
"I think we in Utah are more paranoid about how we are viewed than the rest of the world cares," said Spence Kinard, assistant director of the Utah Travel Council. "Overall, we are still who we were as a people."
What Kinard believes the Olympics has done for Utah is made it easier for tourism and economic development officials to sell the state. "In marketing and advertising, the first thing you have to do is get people's attention," he said.
That scandal certainly did that, Kinard said, "in a way we didn't expect, and we didn't ask for and didn't relish. As embarrassing as all that is, it nevertheless put Utah in the headlines for a while."
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