U.S. Success Can’T Prevent Apathy

International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch should know better.

So should Frank Joklik, head of Salt Lake City’s Olympic Organizing Committee.

Their suggestion that the success of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City will be determined by how well U.S. athletes fare is, simply, wrong.

The United States dominated the medal count at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. That didn’t prevent those Games from being one of the most disappointing ever.

Yet, Samaranch and Joklik persist. It’s unfair.

U.S. athletes have, and will continue, to win their fair share of medals in Olympics - both summer and winter.

U.S. teams have won the medal count in 13 of the 26 Summer Games. While U.S. teams have won the medal count only once in the Winter Olympics (1932), American athletes have won more medals than the host country in seven of the 15 winter Games held outside the United States.

If U.S. athletes fail to improve upon the U.S. record of 13 medals it won in 1994 and 1998, it will reflect badly on the U.S. Olympic Committee, not Salt Lake organizers.

Based on history, it’s highly likely the U.S. team will improve its medal count.

U.S. athletes won only six medals at the 1928 Winter Games. That jumped to 12 at the 1932 Games held in Lake Placid.

Team USA won only seven medals at the 1956 Olympics, but won 10 in 1960 when the Games where held at Squaw Valley, Calif.

The Americans won 10 medals at the 1976 Games and improved to 12 at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid.

That doesn’t mean an improved medal count can be taken for granted. Salt Lake City officials could help by completing venues earlier, giving U.S. athletes additional time to build a home-field advantage.