Salt Lake City Hopes To Duplicate Successes, Avoid Mistakes That Occue In Nagano

Rick Graham won’t be in Japan just to check out who wins gold at the Winter Olympics. The head of the city’s Public Services Department has a lot of work to do preparing for the 2002 Games.

“Sure it’s great to travel to a new land, but I won’t be seeing much of the culture and the games,” he said.

He will be joined by more than 60 other city and state officials and organizers from Utah who are being sent to Japan to learn how to duplicate Nagano’s successes - and avoid its mistakes - in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Salt Lake already has been praised for being the most prepared Olympics host at this stage. With four years to go, financing for the estimated $1.2 billion budget is still dribbling in.

While the officials’ trips to Nagano should be invaluable, they’re only part of the plan to try to make the 2002 Games the best Winter Olympics ever.

“We are fortunate that other cities like Lillehammer and Calgary have done it and we can learn from them,” Salt Lake Olympics organizer Renee Tanner said. “But these Games are our last chance to see what the Olympics are like before they come here.”