Ladies and gentlemen, from the people who brought you Jesse Owens in Munich, Cassius Clay in Rome and the U.S. hockey team's "Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid, may I present to you the 2002 Winter Olympics.
With patriotism still soaring and our men and women waging war thousands of miles away, one would think that such an event would attract nationwide support. Here stands the Olympic Games on American soil that starts in a mere 15 days, and the apathy could not be louder.
To say that tickets are still available would mark a gross understatement.
In fairness, though, these games have a lot working against them outside their control.
First, Americans have always favored the Summer Games in a manner comparable to how we prefer baseball to soccer. While Hermann Maier earned DiCaprio status in his native Austria for his superhuman performance in Nagano four years ago, there was a different sentiment on the other side of the pond, one in which we yawned and yearned for spring training. The last huge story that swirled around the Winter Olympics involved a club, Tonya Harding and a whiny princess crying, "Why me? Why now?" And that chain of events merely served to satisfy our insatiable desire for tabloid news.
Also, the issue of safety at the Games may largely factor into why the projected attendance numbers look so abysmal. Though we have pumped $240 million dollars into security, and Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Attorney General John Ashcroft have assured us that these games will not serve as the next place for terrorists to make a statement, there is a healthy concern for those traveling to Utah that still rests within many American households.
These factors, outside of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) control, partly account for why Park City's lodges will have vacancies and the slopes will not be littered with fans. Nevertheless, the question beneath all of this remains: Do the 2002 Winter Olympic Games deserve any better?
Corruption has plagued "Sale Lake City" ever since officials announced the city's candidacy for hosting the Games.
In order to snatch the Games away from the other cities vying to play host, Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, the bid committee's respective president and vice president, who both now potentially face 75 years of incarceration, illegally distributed $1 million to IOC delegates. Under former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch's leniency to such fraudulence, Salt Lake skated its way into host city status, and several lucky delegates gained the opportunity to take that trip to the islands that their wives had been bugging them about for years.
After having stolen the games, Salt Lake promoters sought to extract as much money as possible from the federal government. Just four years ago, Congress appropriated an inflation-adjusted $610 million for the Atlanta Summer Games, an event that housed four times the amount of athletes as the 2002 games. Salt Lake has received an estimated $1.5 billion.
Tom Warne, Utah's head of the Department of Transportation, even openly admitted, "We are, without shame, using the Olympics to try to get federal funds."
Highways will be improved, urban centers will be revitalized and a leaky faucet in Provo will be repaired all thanks to the U.S. government.
Of course, such foul play is far from new. Former IOC president Avery Brundage selected Berlin as the Summer Games' host city in 1936 for two reasons: His construction company was to reap significant benefits if the games were there, and he wanted to provide an international showcase for Hitler's regime.
Still, despite this dubious past, in light of the recent attacks, I had hoped, albeit naively, that Salt Lake City would serve as the grounds for an event that could demonstrate that the international community is capable of uniting peacefully.
As a person who has seen Carl Lewis run and Bonnie Blair skate, and as a person who has sat in awe during opening ceremonies when giddy athletes from Togo to Canada wave their flags proudly before the whole world, I am sickened by how the five Olympic rings lie mangled in the streets of Salt Lake City.
So, do these games deserve better than the apathy it has thus far drawn?
Absolutely not--I hope that this is a financial disaster, and that those most intimately involved with its planning receive an appropriate punishment.
Nevertheless, my negativity ends right there.
In the short term, the athletes of this Olympiad should garner the same amount of due respect that their predecessors have. Their stories have always transcended the games, and to see their personal triumphs overshadowed by the filthy workings of a corrupt few would be even more tragic.
Lastly, looking beyond Salt Lake, the IOC should take precautions to ensure that their history of crookedness reverses in the selection of future host cities. The body should not award the Olympics to a bid committee that has purchased delegates' affections, and it should attempt to assess the city's potential for leaching off any other funding organizations after the appointment.
To the IOC's credit, newly appointed President Jacques Rogge supposedly has a reputation of standing firm against the Brundage and Samaranch brand of leadership. It remains to be seen, however, how he will respond when the dollars mount and the internal pressure rises.
But, in the end, I remain optimistic.
After all, childlike dreams have always been in the spirit of the Olympic Games.
Greg Veis is a Trinity junior and associate sports editor of The Chronicle.
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