Effective May 7 there will be some changes in the security department for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Marv Smalley, who has overseen security preparations and has been the organizers’ representative on the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command for more than two years, has been laid off along with five assistants. Caroline Shaw, Salt Lake’s spokesperson, said SLOC was not unhappy with Smalley, deputy security director Ken Miles or others that were laid off. But she said there is a reorganization and a refocusing and a realigning; and a different direction will be taken.
Security for the 2002 Salt Lake Games will be tightly monitored from garbage cans to bombs or hostage situations. The Federal Aviation Administration has provided $2 million for security upgrades at Salt Lake International Airport and part of that money will be used to buy hundreds of new garbage cans for the concourses. The cans look normal, but if a bomb goes off inside one of them, the can is designed to explode upward rather than outward. Police, fire and emergency crews will be responsible for day-to-day security and safety at the venues. The FBI will handle the immediate response to something like a bomb or a hostage situation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will deal with the aftermath of a catastrophe. And the Secret Service has overall charge of the federal forces at the Olympics. Meanwhile the U.S. Customs Service will patrol skies over Olympic venues, while other security officers will be watching the ground where protesters are already planning to gather during the Games.
Tickets.com, the official supplier of 2002 Winter Olympic ticket services, may go out of business before it fulfills its contract. If it does, Salt Lake’s organizing committee would take a significant financial hit to provide the remaining services expected from the company. But SLOC President Mitt Romney said nobody who bought tickets to the Salt Lake Games would be affected adversely. SLOC is in the second round of its U.S. ticket-sales campaign and out of more than 800,000 tickets available to the American public, about 200,000 remain to be sold. None of the tickets will be delivered until January 2002. Tickets.com estimates the value of its Olympic services donation to date is $3.1 million. The company is SLOC’s second Internet-related supporter to struggle financialy. Quokka Sports Inc., which provided content for the organizing committee’s Web site, went out of business earlier this month.
It’s all in fun. Bill Hipson, a Canadian, is cashing in on Salt Lake’s Olympic bribery scandal. He’s selling a series of 10 pins, each depicting a different bribe that the bid commitee reportedly used to entice members of the International Olympic Committee to cast their vote for Salt Lake City. The pins are meant to represent a countdown to the 2002 Winter Games. Hipson also produced the propular pin that reads “BRIBES-R-US” over a Utah license plate.
A lesson in good manners. U.S. Olympic officials will be giving athletes pointers on how to act in Salt Lake City in the aftermath of the flag-draping, muscle-fixing celebration by an American gold-medal relay team in Sydney. The athletes will be shown a series or presentations that may include a video tape of the preening and posing of the mens’s 1,600-metre relay squad after the win in Sydney. Exactly how proper medal stand etiquette willl be taught remains to be worked out in the coming months, but Sandra Baldwin, president of the U.S. Olymic Committee, said she hopes to give advice on medal stand protocol. Baldwin hopes the pre-Olympic training will give athletes a definition of what is expected of them after winning a medal. The athletes will also be given training on good conduct during the Games so incidents such as American hockey players trashing a room after a loss in Nagano, won’t be repeated.
And finally, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s executive predicted that American athletes will win at least 20 medals at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, seven more than they won in the last two Winter Olympics. And if the team reaches that goal, employees of the organization will get performance bonuses. USOC president Sandy Baldwin said if they end up missing the goal and win 19 medals instead of 20, he’ll be a little disappointed but will still congratulate his staff.
