Olympic Legacy

The crowds have departed. The athletes have taken their medals home. The volunteers have hung up their uniforms. The Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games are now a part of history and the torch is passed on to Turin, Italy for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Yet, the fire that was “lit within” continues to burn. The Games were not just the largest event ever held in Utah. They were also a powerful symbol of what can happen when differences can be set aside. They were the seminal healing event following the horrors of September 11. The 2002 Olympic Winter Games were, as IOC President Jacques Rogge said, “superb.”

Remember watching Jim Shea, Vonetta Flowers, Tristan Gale, Sarah Hughes, Derek Parra, and Apolo Ohno struggle and triumph? Some four billion television viewers watched the Games and 1.6 million tickets were sold. There were 70,000 visitors to the Olympic corridor a day, and the 15,000-seat grandstands at the venues routinely filled to capacity. The Games were the best attended, most watched, and most secure in history.

Even though the Games are over, visitors and athletes have the opportunity to try out
the same courses used by Olympic athletes.
The Utah Athletic Foundation manages
former Games venues such as Soldier Hollow, the Utah Olympic Oval, and the Utah Olympic Park. The world’s best athletes still come to Utah for training and World Cup
class competition.

The Olympic Cauldron Park at RiceEccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus is a beautiful area that includes the Olympic Cauldron and the 36-foot high Hoberman Arch “curtain” used at the Olympic Medals Plaza. The Park has an interactive museum that features “The Fire Within,” a Multimedia film experience that brings back all the excitement of the Games.

Utah businesses are becoming essential parts of the Olympics. The expertise they demonstrated in 2002 was again put to the test in the Summer Games in Athens. Utah companies are lending their expertise to the Games in Italy in 2006. Great interest exists in Canada as they use Salt Lake 2002 as a model for making Vancouver 2010 a success. People continue to recognize Utah as a center for technology investment, employment, entrepreneurship, and unsurpassed lifestyle.