It will be Salt Lake City 84195. That’s the zip code for athletes, and Olympic officials at the Salt Lake City 2002 Games. They are the first new codes issued for Utah by the U.S. Postal Service since 1996 and will be given to the 3,000 athletes and officials who will live at Olympic Village on the University of Utah campus. The 9,000 accredited journalists will be under the zip code 84194. Post offices dole out temporary zip codes on rare occasions and during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 six zip codes were created. Also, the Main Media Center and Olympic Village will get temporary addresses. The Salt Lake City post office has also set aside two more zip codes in case they are needed during the Olympics.
A model of the $5 million Olympic Medals Plaza, to be built with funds donated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was unveiled recently. It’s a three-story mechanical arch made of 96 translucent panels that will open and close like the iris of an eye and will serve as the curtain for the medals stage. The curtain will span the 72-foot stage and be 36 feet tall at the apex of the arch. The semicircular structure will be a latticework of sandblasted aluminum and plexiglas panels and weigh 15,000 pounds. The stage will be covered with a shell-like truss construction and roofed with vinyl. It will turn before and after the athletes’ ceremonies, revealing an entertainment stage. Two 660-square-foot video screens will flank the stage.
Salt Lake’s Salt Palace is being converted into what will be the biggest television production facility in the world in February. Last week trucks started delivering mountains of materials to construct a city of television and radio stations, editing booths and administrative offices for the half-dozen broadcast companies worldwide that spent large sums of money for the rights to the 2002 Winter Olympics. Qwest and AT&T have already been installing the telecommunications infrastructure needed to transmit video and audio signals to all corners of the Earth. According to the construction schedule, about 200 people working 20 hours per day (in two 10-hour shifts) will be needed to complete work on the first four halls by Nov. 1. Three more Salt Palace halls will be turned over to ISB in late October for conversion into more television production areas. Construction of the news media centre, in rooms on the Salt Palace’s eastern and southern sides, will begin Dec. 15.
You’ve decided to take in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games in style. You can get round-trip airfare, a limousine ride from the airport, four nights at the Plaza, breakfast in bed and unobstructed TV views of sold-out events, all for around $1,800 (U.S.). It’s relatively cheap compared with the $2,980 it costs to stay at Salt Lake’s Plaza Hotel, a Best Western in downtown Salt Lake City – and that package doesn’t include airfare or event tickets. And renting a car during the Games could run you $619 (U.S.) for a week at Hertz and even more at Thrifty –about double what it normally charges. According to reports the airlines are among the few commercial enterprises that aren’t gouging Olympic spectators. Delta is offering round-trip tickets from Atlanta for around $400, which is “a little high, but not bad”, says Salt Lake City travel agent Bruce Smith. Flights from Phoenix start at $166 and those from Los Angeles are $10 cheaper. But it’s not worth waiting to book. Airfares and rental car rates will all increase as the Games near, says Smith.
The world Club Des Chefs Des Chefs, made up of the Head Chefs of state leaders, are being briefed on the nutritional and catering program of the Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. About 50 head chefs, all members of the club, are visiting the Greek capital this week following an invitation by the Athens Club of Chief Chefs. Strict regulations and guidelines govern the club, founded in 1977. Membership is considered a great honour and professional distinction for those dealing with the nutrition of royal families and heads of state throughout the world. Chief chefs of the Presidencies are from Europe, Mexico, India, South Africa and China.
And finally, a delegation of the Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games briefed the Pan-American National Olympic Committees on the progress of preparations for the Athens Olympic Games. The IOC member and President of the Association of National Olympic Committees, Mario Vazquez Rana, who is also President of the Pan-American Sports Association, praised the presentation and the progress achieved.
