| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| 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 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| 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 |
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Olympic Square sizzles for its final weekend
By Seth Lewis
Deseret News staff writer
Salt Lake Olympic Square has been open hardly 20 minutes, and the line for "Coca-Cola On The Ice" is 100 yards long, snaking in a paper-clip turn around the corner and down the sidewalk.
It stretches all the way back to Mark McGrath and his 7-year-old son, Jake. When the Salt Lake residents came to Coca-Cola's tent during the Olympics' first weekend, it was a snap getting to ride the luge and push a bobsled.
"You walked right in," Mark McGrath said.
Not anymore.
Olympic Square has become the Games' downtown epicenter. And with it all disappearing after 6 p.m. Sunday, more than 100,000 weekend revelers — procrastinators and regulars alike — are expected to crash the free party while it lasts.
"We're certainly putting our plans together for maximum loads," said Fraser Bullock, chief operating officer for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.
Today could be particularly taxing.
Some 15,000 fans will file in for short-track speedskating at the Salt Lake Ice Center, another 20,000 will fill the Medals Plaza for 'N Sync and upward of 70,000 ticketless visitors could come for the sponsor booths and live music.
"At some point, we're going to hit capacity," Bullock said.
If that happens, officials will stagger the crowds by letting in periodic waves through security checkpoints. But those measures weren't necessary when the square saw its largest crowd of the Games, 100,000-plus last Saturday.
Olympic Square's popularity soared over the holiday weekend, and the warmer weather and word of mouth has since brought increasingly larger crowds.
Dennis McCarthy, who works 14-hour days at a roasted almonds stand in the square, also explains the surge this way: In the wake of the Centennial Park pipe-bomb incident during the 1996 Atlanta Games, safety fears have finally softened.
"People came down here, and nobody got blown up," said McCarthy, a Taylorsville resident.
With crowds come lines. Two-hour lines to curl a stone or e-mail a photo at "Coca-Cola On The Ice." Hourlong lines to shop in the Superstore, where you can buy official 2002 boxers for $24.50 or a thermos for $37.50. On busy days, there are even 20-minute waits to get a $5 bag of glazed walnuts.
"It's like Disneyland," McCarthy said. "People know they're going to wait in line."
Yet they don't seem to mind.
"It's worth the wait," said Carla Nelson, who stood with her daughters Jannae and Aubrey outside the Coca-Cola exhibit.
The Nelsons, of West Jordan, got to Olympic Square 45 minutes before it opened to snag a place in line at the square's hottest spot. "We thought we better get a jump on it," she said.
On the square's last weekend, it's a race against the clock — and the crowds.
E-MAIL: slewis@desnews.com
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February 23, 2002
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