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Great conclusion to Games
Deseret News editorial
Is it really over? The event that dominated organizers' lives for years?
The 2002 Winter Olympic Games are indeed at an end and they went out soaring and literally with more than a few bangs.
Sunday's closing ceremony featured the biggest fireworks display the state has ever seen — large cannons spewed 24-inch fireworks shells into the sky. Francis Scott Key might have thought he was reliving the 1814 battle of Fort McHenry that inspired the "Star Spangled Banner."
But it had so much more than the other-worldly aerial displays.
What was also on display for the world to see were the hearts of the athletes, which transcended national and political boundaries.
That, as much as the incredible performances, is what needs to be taken from these Games.
The theme of the Games was "Light the fire within."
Mission accomplished.
"The fire you lit in each of us will not go out," Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney exclaimed toward the end of the ceremony. In addition to athletic accomplishments, "We saw," Romney said, "the universal greatness of the human family."
That greatness was on display in abundance Sunday night.
This was the most security-conscious Olympic Games in history, with $310 million spent to ensure that athletes and spectators could enjoy the experience.
And did they ever.
The closing ceremony was the perfect bookend to the Feb. 8 opening ceremony that launched the 17-day extravaganza in Salt Lake City.
The next time a skier hurtles 80-plus miles per hour down a mountain searching for gold, silver or bronze will be in 2006 in Turin, Italy.
Before then, runners, swimmers, gymnasts, etc. will do their own medal mining at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
But Sunday was more about celebrating the present and the past, particularly the past three weeks.
There was even a Dick Cheney sighting at Rice-Eccles Stadium — the vice president joined International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge and Romney at the festivities.
By the time Rogge officially closed the Games, spectators and a worldwide viewing audience had been treated to the best entertainment spectacle since, well, since the opening ceremony.
The athletes, appropriately, set the tone for the fun-filled evening by entering the stadium in a fun-filled manner. It was a march of friendship, not of nationalities. As friends, they laughed, took pictures, and some even rode piggy-back style into the stadium. World leaders could and should learn from the athletes' heart-warming example.
The looseness of the athletes carried over to the performances.
Was that past Olympic skating champions Katarina Witt and Kristi Yamaguchi cavorting on the ice as the rock group KISS belted out "Rock and Roll Nite?" It was indeed.
Exuberance was accompanied by grace and inspiration.
Dorothy Hamill, who captivated the world when she glided to Olympic gold in women's figure skating in 1976, spun some more magic Sunday night, accompanying Harry Connick Jr.'s rendition of "Over the Rainbow." It was if she had managed to turn back the clock.
That set the stage for the return of Utah's Ryne Sanborn, who portrayed "The Child of Light," a key figure also in the opening ceremony.
But long after the performances have faded the spirit of goodwill will remain.
As Rogge said after congratulating Salt Lake for giving the world superb Games, "You have reassured us that people from all countries can live peaceably together."
That in and of itself is reason enough to keep holding the Olympics.
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February 25, 2002
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