Salt Lake City’s Bid For Games Appears Secure

Salt Lake City has bid to host the Winter Olympic Games for nearly 30 years. The effort seems about to pay off.

The Utah capital is the favorite when the 96 members of the International Olympic Committee vote by secret ballot Friday to designate the host city of the 2002 Games.

Entering the final days of the campaign, Salt Lake City has maintained its frontrunner status over its three rivals: Quebec, Canada; Sion, Switzerland; and Ostersund, Sweden.

Salt Lake has been the top contender since 1991, when it lost by four votes to Nagano, Japan, in the election that determined the host for the 1998 Olympics.

Though by no means a shoo-in, Salt Lake is considered by everyone as the city to beat this time.

“To go anywhere, you’ve got to get by Salt Lake City,” said Dick Pound, an IOC executive board member from Canada. “They’ve been out there far ahead for so long, and were so close the last time. If Salt Lake can hog the front lane and keep you from passing on the corners, that’s got to be the strategy.”

Salt Lake backers continue to hammer one main theme: The city has carried through on its promises from the previous bid and completed nearly all of the facilities needed to stage the Games.

“I have visited all four cities and they could all host the Games,” said Anita DeFrantz, the U.S. member on the IOC executive board. “The difference is that Salt Lake City has the venues now. The facilities exist.”

John Krimsky, acting executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, went as far as to predict Salt Lake’s victory.

“We’re going to win because we clearly have the best bid,” he said. “We have probably the best bid I can remember, and I’ve been involved in this since 1972. The IOC members recognize that this is the best bid they could have.”

This is Salt Lake’s fifth Olympic bid, dating back to its first unsuccessful effort in 1966 for the 1972 Games. Bid chief Tom Welch, who also fronted the 1998 effort, has said the city will quit bidding if it doesn’t win this time.

In 1991, Salt Lake was a strong contender but lost out to Nagano because the IOC was reluctant to choose another U.S. city so soon after awarding the 1996 Summer Games to Atlanta.

Stung by complaints that they had sold out to commercial interests by selecting Atlanta other Athens, IOC members found Nagano to be a safe and controversy-free choice.

Geography favored the Japanese city since the Winter Games hadn’t been held in Asia since Sapporo in 1972.

The equation should benefit Salt Lake City. The last U.S. city to host the Winter Games was Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980.