Following day one of the Salt Lake Winter Games, Salt Lake Olympic head Mitt Romney said, “our security worked extremely well”.
IOC director general Francois Carrard added, “it was fantastic. We knew it was well prepared”.
The only trouble spotted on Saturday by leaders of the IOC and SLOC were slower-than-anticipated areas for reporters and media vehicles at a few venues.
Romney promised to do what he could to speed things up at media checkpoints but warned that the $310 million security system for the Games would bend only so far. He said the Secret Service, which is running security operations, would be told of the problem and hoped agents would be able to “balance resources to achieve uniformity” between access for media and spectators.
Once the crowds got through metal detectors and were patted down, they might have been surprised by the lack of visible security inside the stadium.
Plainclothes officers mingled with the crowds inside to keep the Games from having a militaristic look.
Because of security concerns, food vendors at the Rice–Eccles Stadium Friday night couldn’t give plastic lids or straws for soda cups to customers.
Other security measurements include no skis, snowboards, sleds, scooters, bicycles or skateboards. And if you want to use ski poles to help in tramping up the side of a ski hill, you can only bring one.
Also, banners to cheer on teams and athletes can’t exceed six feet by three feet. And noisemakers are forbidden except for traditional devices such as cowbells at the skiing venues and perhaps ice hockey.
The entire list is on the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s computer Web site at www.saltlake2002.com.
Meanwhile, NBCOlympics.com reported that traffic at the Web site was 209 per cent higher than the corresponding date of the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.
