Thursday, May 20,1999

New women's events awaiting approval

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Women's sports got a big boost from Salt Lake Olympic organizers Thursday, moving into a near-dead heat with men when it comes to the schedule for 2002.
Under a proposal by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, two-woman bobsled, skeleton and cross-country ski sprints would be added to the Winter Games.

SLOC president Mitt Romney said he was confident the plan would be approved by the boards of both his panel and the International Olympic Committee.

The additions, long in the pipeline, would push the number of events to 75 -- seven more than in the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano -- and cost the cash-strapped organizers another $650,000, according to Cathy Priestner-Allinger, SLOC's sports director.

But Romney, struggling to get the Salt Lake Games in shape after the devastating bribery scandal, said it was a small price to pay for the chance to make the sports schedule more equitable for women athletes.

"I think it would be very hard for me to explain to my granddaughter why we have men's bobsled and not women's bobsled," he said.

It also left competitors beaming.

"It is truly exciting," said Lincoln DeWitt, a skeleton racer from Park City, Utah.

Jen Davidson, a braker on the U.S. women's bobsled team from Layton, Utah, said she had started the sport "100-percent based on hopes that it would be an Olympic sport someday." Thursday's announcement made that decision pay off.

The skeleton -- a headfirst plunge on a small sled down an ice chute at 70 mph -- and cross-country sprints will have both men's and women's fields. So the additions, if approved, would leave the Salt Lake schedule almost evenly split by gender -- 39 men's events, 34 women's. Only ski jumping and Nordic combined would remain men-only. Pairs figure skating and ice dancing complete the slate.
At the end of four days of meetings with the IOC's coordination commission for the games, Romney also announced that figure skating would stay in the Delta Center, the city's biggest arena.

Concerns had been raised about obstructed seats and spectators being too far off the ice, issues raised at the World Figure Skating Championships here last February.

But Romney and Frazier Bullock, SLOC's chief operating officer, said jumbo TV screens would allow those in the obstructed-view seats to see all the action. Those seats might be sold at cut-rate prices, Romney said.

In addition, he said, seats would be installed between the boards around the ice and the first row of permanent stands. Skaters at the world championships said they often could not see the fans, which interrupted their rhythm.

The arena holds more than 16,000 fans for Utah Jazz games, but officials have put the Olympic capacity at 11,000.

The decision on figure skating means short-track speedskating also will stay at the Delta Center, while the E Center, an 8,500-seat arena west of downtown, will remain the main venue for men's ice hockey. That tournament might again include top players from the NHL.

In other areas, the Olympic officials said:
The IOC had agreed to change its home for the games, from a swanky new hotel tower under construction to an older, smaller but still first-class one across the street.
Marc Hodler, the IOC commission chairman, said the new tower "contained too many suites and thus would have been too expensive."

He said the IOC would maintain its practice of double rooms, a move Romney said virtually guaranteed that SLOC would not be stuck with a portion of the hotel bill.

SLOC had been given permission to solicit information technology sponsorships, an area Romney had called the single biggest potential source of new income for a committee looking to fill a $300 million budget gap.

Romney and Hodler said splitting the sponsorship funds would be done on a case-by-case basis. But Romney said the IOC would lead on finding a computer hardware sponsor, a deal probably worth $50 million, while SLOC would focus on an Internet partner, a package probably worth $30 million.
Olympic organizers were not trying to change Utah's strict liquor laws to make it easier for visitors to the games to drink.

"We have not asked for any changes in the laws, and are not lobbying for any changes in the laws," Romney said. "We'll just look and see how the laws apply to each situation."

The IOC said Wednesday that it had asked SLOC to try to make it easier for reporters to buy alcohol in the main press center, where it felt there might be a culture clash between Utah's laws and foreigners used to more liberal drinking rules.

The IOC was concerned about the possible impact of heavy snowfall on the games, especially on Interstate 80 between Salt Lake and Park City, where many ski events will be held.

Hodler even said he hoped that most of the snow on the slopes would be machine made, because it holds up longer than natural snow. That took Romney by surprise.

"We have the greatest snow on earth," he told Hodler. "Does this mean we have to adjust our prayers?"

This was the first visit by IOC leaders since the bribery scandal broke last November, and all sides said they were moving forward.

"We are focusing on the games and the athletes of the world," Romney said.
Hodler said the IOC had full faith in Romney's administration, and that it's goal "is to make sure these great facilities produce, in our president's pet remark, the greatest Winter Games ever."

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