| Salt Lake City |
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| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
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| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Oly coats of many colors have stories to tell
By Norma Wagner
Deseret News staff writer
Unless you're color blind, you've probably noticed the 1.5 billion different shades of Olympic jackets tromping around the city in large herds.
And you may have found yourself wondering what all these colors mean and who the people wearing them represent.
"It's very confusing, all of it," said Anthony Foster, a 39-year-old spectator from London. "The yellow we figure are police; the blue, because of where they stand, clearly transportation. And the red jackets — obviously medical personnel.
"But who are the greens?" he asked earnestly.
Depends on which green you're talking about. If they're the ones with the big white snowflake on the back, they're the volunteers and Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) employees working the "field of play" beat, inside and outside the venues.
If they are the other greens who don't have the big white snowflake on the back, technically they're supposed to be yellows. As if that's not confusing enough, those yellows are not to be confused with the huge number of yellow-and-black-jacketed security forces in town for the Games. You can tell the difference only by the shoulder patch that says Utah Olympic Public Safety Command, for state law enforcement officers, as well as others imported from as far away as Virginia.
The SLOC yellows are "special events" workers who perform a variety of tasks: handing out programs at the venues; escorting spectators to their seats; answering questions posed by visitors — the so-called designated hosts and hostesses for the 2002 Winter Games, said Vania Grandi, senior media relations manager for SLOC.
But after Sept. 11, SLOC officials decided they needed more watchful eyes and attuned ears at the venues and increased the ranks they had solicited for the yellow-jacketed special events troupe. Problem was, they had run out of jackets in which to dress and identify them.
Hence, the new plain-green jacketed ranks walking around without the signature snowflake emblem. "Because of all the extra personnel we decided we had to have, we didn't have enough uniforms to go around," Grandi explained.
And the no-snowflake greens are none too happy about it. In fact, they present themselves as being unabashedly green with envy.
"These are nothing like the SLOC marker jackets, which are the big, thick, nice ones," SLOC special events employee Brandy Webber said. "These are lighter, like spring jackets. And we have it on paper, we were supposed to get a snowflake jacket. I'm wearing three shirts underneath this just to stay warm!"
Another special events SLOC employee, Tim Masias, was more succinct: "These are the crap jackets!"
Then again, in a swelling sea of multiple-colored jackets flooding downtown streets, who would notice?
The visitor from London was basically correct when it comes to the SLOC colors: yellow — special event services; green — venue workers; red means medical personnel, and "mountain shadow blue" just about everything not done by the previous three types of workers, including transportation and media relations "and all the other functions that may fall through the cracks," Grandi said.
But from the 400 McDonald's Olympic "jacketeers" representing 46 countries (also yellow and black with an "M" insignia on the back) to the blush pink, sunset orange and steel gray jacket-wearers representing sundry sponsors, such as Samsung and Nike, not to mention those donned by the more than 10,000 members of the media from across the world, it's become a virtual who's-who among the in- and out-of-state, out-of-country pedestrians walking the streets of downtown Salt Lake.
And yet remarkably, in this sea of vivid colors at Crossroads Plaza, Olympic pin dealers Toni Stephensen and Dolan Hudson stood anonymously and unashamedly bland in the solid black Olympic jackets they admit buying downtown, right off the rack.
"Our jackets do nothing, mean nothing," Stephensen said. "We bought them at one of the Olympic stores because they're warm."
Meanwhile, outside the downtown mall, special events (we're-supposed-to-be-yellow-jackets!) employees Webber and Masias walked outside into the cold to meet and greet visitors, still green — with envy.
E-MAIL: nwagner@desnews.com
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February 12, 2002
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