Fear is a familiar feeling to many of these athletes, whose daring has been critical to their success. They include downhill skiing star Picabo Street, whose reckless charges down the mountain have twice derailed her career with serious knee injuries; figure skater Michael Weiss, for whom a missed quad jump can become the equivalent of a 10-foot spill onto concrete; skiing aerialist Joe Pack, who does triple flips and spins from a height of 55 feet; snowboarder Chris Klug, who faced a liver transplant last summer that could have meant the end of his career; and skeleton champ Jim Shea Jr., who plunges face-first down the chute on his sled at 80 miles an hour, with his chin hovering just a few inches above the ice sheet. (“You hit the wall, you bleed” is the mantra of the Olympics’ newest sport.)
But the fear being discussed in Salt Lake City was a whole new species–not one that is familiar to these daredevils, but one these elite athletes now share with virtually every American since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. For the athletes, the fear and uncertainty is compounded by what is surely a strange realization: that the goal to which they have dedicated their lives could conceivably put them in harm’s way–and in a fashion they never before imagined.
These days, it doesn’t take much imagination to see February’s Winter Olympics in Salt Lake as a potential terrorist target. And despite the macho that these American athletes routinely project, not one was shrugging off their new fears. “You just have to trust that they are taking precautions for everybody,” says skier Donna Weinbrecht, a 1992 moguls gold medallist who is bidding for her third Olympic team. “All you can do is have faith and be brave.”
Olympic and Utah state officials dedicated the first two sessions of this four-day athlete-media gabfest to reassuring everyone that the Games will indeed be safe. “Security is our first priority,” said Mitt Romney, head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. “We are taking every step to make sure the athletes, the spectators and the community are safe.” Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt echoed that promise in even stronger terms. “We’ll be ready and this will be a secure place,” he said. “We’re better prepared than anywhere else in the world to deal with biological or chemical threats.”
The Olympics had a formidable security plan in place even before the events of Sept. 11. Now, with the infusion of more funds, the Salt Lake Games will dedicate more than $300 million to security and will have up to 6,000 federal and state police augmented by more than 3,000 military personnel on the ground. The additional post-Sept. 11 funding has been used for more barricades and electronic equipment, as well as to boost the air defense capabilities surrounding the game. Every precaution is being taken, authorities insist. It was decided just last week that the Salt Lake City international airport will be shut down during the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies. And even the public celebrations in Salt Lake City, the medal ceremonies and concerts, will now be staged in secure areas, with every single spectator required to pass through metal detectors.
Romney points out that the biggest problem the world has in defending against terrorists is not knowing where and when they will strike. The Olympics does not face that particular problem. “We know precisely the time and place so severe actions can be taken, and will be taken, to secure the safety of our athletes, spectators and community,” he says.
Moreover, the Olympics’ previous experience with tragedy–the assault by Arab extremists on the Israeli Olympic team at Munich in 1972 and the fatal bombing in the public Olympic plaza in Atlanta in 1996–had already forced the Olympic movement into the vanguard of security planning. “Every possible source of terrorist threat–from air to biological to chemical–has been considered and a plan is in place to minimize the risk,” says Romney.
Independent terrorism experts agree that, while no major security plan can be foolproof, penetrating Olympic security in Salt Lake would be a daunting task. And, some say, the fact that there are far easier targets elsewhere should make the Olympics an unlikely one. “There are other places you can get as much bang for the buck without anywhere near the same risks,” says one expert.
In numerous small ways, the Sept. 11 attack has made the tasks of America’s Olympic athletes more difficult. At the very least, most of them were thrown off their daily regimens by the shock and horror of the attack. “Driving to the rink listening to the radio, coming home and watching it all on TV,” says U.S. men’s figure-skating champ Tim Gobble. “It was very hard to train.” Many athletes withdrew from key competitions abroad, depriving them of a normal competitive cycle of the season. The short-track speed-skating team skipped the first two world cup events in Asia. And just last week, USA Hockey decided not to send the women’s team to Finland for a tournament. “It’s not simply concerns about security,” said Doug Palazzari, executive director of the hockey federation. “If something happened here while they were there, how would we get them home?”
Scott Blacken, the acting head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, acknowledges that “what is in the best interests of security may not be in the best interest of athletes preparing to compete.” Both figure and speed skaters now have to cope with new airline regulations that make them exceedingly nervous. They can no longer bring their sharp-bladed skates as carry-on luggage on flights, thus putting their competitive hopes for every event in the hands of airline baggage handlers. Some skaters are sending their backup skates with each other, in the hopes that they couldn’t be so unfortunate as to have baggage foul-ups involving two of them. “It’s a major concern,” says Gobble. “Even coming here, I was really edgy ’til my skates came off. It takes so long for a figure skater to break in a pair of boots properly. So if your skates don’t show up, you’re out of luck.” (At the same time, many athletes say their overseas rivals have expressed trepidation about coming to compete in the United States, perhaps giving the American Olympians a home-field advantage of the kind nobody could possibly desire.)
Still, for all the anxiety and hassles, both athletes and organizers insist there is more of a need for the Olympics than ever. Officials says they have not even seriously discussed canceling the Games and have had nothing but support from countries in the Olympic family around the world. And little wonder. Given the threats of a global crisis, the notion of the world at play in harmony is more appealing than ever. “This is an event that was a good thing to have,” said Gov. Leavitt. “Now it’s an event we have to have.”
