In Salt Lake, you can ski the giant
slalom, speed skate the ice oval, even rocket down a bobsled
run - using the very same venues where Olympians compete.
Here's how.
"Track cleared for bobsled number 12," bellows the announcer. Chris
Corr Jr., Mark Dante, and John McGuinnes, hearts pounding, don
helmets and slip into a sleek, red fiberglass bullet. The two
pushmen throw all their weight forward and propel the runners of
the sled over the lip of the track and past the point of no return.
Going into turn five, the crew achieves an exhilarating 55 miles
per hour. They have no sense of cold or wind, only speed. All they
can do is fight the intense centrifugal force dragging their bodies
down to earth, and clench their hands around the rope handles
anchoring them into the sled. Seconds later, they cheer as they
sail across the finish line.
Are these guys world-class bobsledders? No, they're a group of
thirtysomething businessmen. Chris is a television account
executive, Mark is a sales manager at a TV station, and John sells
advertising. But here, gathered just minutes outside Park City,
Utah, they're Olympians for a day.
The world is coming to the
Salt Lake City area February 8-24 for
the
Olympic Winter Games of 2002. Turns out the games they're
playing aren't just spectator sports. The following facilities
welcome wannabes before and after the
Olympics.
BOBSLED
Bobsledding coach Pat Brown will be the first to tell you that the
run at
Utah Olympic Park is no Disneyland ride. Because of the
superior way the track is engineered and the ice is made, even
amateur "sliders" race down the track at more than 80 miles per
hour, speeds equal to and sometimes faster than those clocked in
Nagano. Think up to five Gs of force!
As our friends Chris, Mark, and John gather inside the start house,
instructor Joe Davis leads the half-hour Bobsledding 101
orientation. Next, the thrillseekers pick sled positions, with a
double-blind draw out of a basket, and pair up with an
Olympic-caliber driver. Finally, the group slips on their winter
wear, a good pair of gloves, a helmet, and a dose of courage, and
prepares to shoot down the eight-tenths-of-a-mile-long strip of
ice.
One big push and they're off.
They count the turns, which come faster and faster. They have to
work to hold their heads up to watch the world rushing past. In
less than a minute, the ride of their lives is over. The official
time: 50.82 seconds.
"The next time I watch it on TV," brags Chris, "I'm gonna say I
went through that turn."
Site: Utah Olympic Park, north of
Park City.
Cost: $200 for a no-do-overs ride of your life.
Hours: By reservation only.
Season: November to January.
Details: (435) 658-4200,
www.saltlake2002.com
SPEED SKATING
There's just something about the ice at the Utah Olympic Oval that
makes people go fast. Less than a month after it opened,
competitors at the 2001 World Speed Skating Championships Single
Distances set five world records.
Top skaters approach sprinting speeds of 44 miles per hour. It
probably has something to do with the altitude and a
state-of-the-art facility big enough to fit two jumbo jets -
comfortably.
"It's amazing how fast you go without being any good," says speed
skating novice Steve O'Connor.
Speed skating appears as effortless as it does quiet and graceful,
but, says program manager Lester Pardoe, it's highly technical and
a lot of work. The Oval offers lessons, ice time, and skates to
anyone interested in learning the sport. Strap on some blades,
start moving your legs, and feel the smooth, glassy ice and the
wind in your hair.
Site: Utah Olympic Oval, Kearns.
Costs: Adults $4, children $2; skate rental $2.
Hours: 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, and noon to 2 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday.
Season: Open year-round except May.
Details: (801) 968-6825,
www.saltlake2002.com
DOWNHILL/SUPER-G/NORDIC COMBINED
Want to know what it feels like to be
America's latest
skiing star
Daron Rahlves, one of the favorites to claim the downhill gold in
2002? If you're an advanced intermediate skier, simply take the
Snowbasin Resort lifts more than 9,000 feet above sea level to the
top of the Olympic downhill runs in the mountains northeast of Salt
Lake City and get busy.
The start shoots you into high gear and onto one of the two
separate but intertwined runs. It's steep - in some places about a
35-degree pitch. You'll encounter double fall lines that tend to
pull you off course and big-air hot spots. The course just keeps
going, and the bottom just keeps on dropping out from under you.
This is where Rahlves and other brave souls will compete in the
downhill, an event all about speed and daring; the super-G, a
shorter downhill with more gates; and an event that combines the
two.
Imagine racing down that very same mountain, the way the pros do
it, at 70 miles per hour after it's been watered and iced. At that
speed, skis tend to take flight. Guess there's a good reason why
the nets along the course are 30 feet high.
Site: Snowbasin Resort, Huntsville.
Cost: 2001-2002 season ticket prices are $48 for adults, $23
for kids.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Season: November to April.
Details: (801) 620-1000,
www.snowbasin.com
CURLING
Tuesday night at The Ice Sheet at Ogden, the Olympic
curling venue,
is league night. And while club members compete, newcomers try
their hands at "throwing stones."
After you put a teflon pad under your shoe, the object of the game
is to grab a 42-pound rock and slide it as close as you can to a
target 130 feet away. Your teammates, armed with brooms, vigorously
sweep across the stone's path to draw it one way or the other.
Just don't call it bowling on ice. "There's a lot more to it than
that," says Iain Hueton, Ogden Curling Club president.
Top-level play requires the finesse and agility of an ice skater
and the mental stamina of a golfer. But it's evident from the
league scene - there are curlers aged 15 to 70, male and female,
able-bodied and wheelchair-bound - that the sport is accessible to
everyone.
Hueton was born in
Scotland, the birthplace of curling, and reared
in
Canada, where two-thirds of the world's curlers live, yet it was
only after he moved to Ogden that he discovered the sport. Utah's
not exactly a hotbed of curling, but he's working on it.
Site: The Ice Sheet at Ogden.
Cost: Lessons $5.
Hours: 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, noon to 3 p.m. Thursday.
Season: October to March.
Details: (801) 399-8750,
www.utahcurling.com
HALFPIPE
Olympic snowboarders won't be riding any ordinary halfpipe at Park
City Mountain Resort. It's a "super" pipe. The latest innovation in
halfpipe riding, it's described as a bobsled track for
snowboarders.
A halfpipe is just that - a giant half-cylinder made out of snow,
350 feet long with 17-foot-high side walls - the perfect arena for
snowboarders to jump, spin, and flip through the air. From the
inside out, it looks like a manmade canyon.
The new design helps riders land more easily, so they can jump
higher. Now world-class riders like American Ross Powers are
busting air as much as 15 feet above the lip of the pipe. That's 32
feet off the ground!
After you've strapped on your board, slide over the lip and drop in
the pipe. Ride down the wall, pump your knees for power and speed,
race across the flat, and begin the transition up the other wall.
You shoot straight up and, for an instant, hover there in midair.
That's the rush; that brief moment in hang time. On the way down,
push off and slingshot yourself back to the other side. Maybe, with
a lot of practice, you'll be doing alley-oops (180-degree uphill
rotations), inverteds (to get upside down while performing a 180-,
540-, or 720-degree rotational flip), and mctwists (inverted
aerials with a 540-degree rotational flip).
Or maybe not.
You don't have to shoot three stories up to enjoy a superpipe ride.
Site: Park City Mountain Resort, Park City.
Cost: 2002 season ticket prices are $63 for adults, $32 for
children.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Season: November to April. The PayDay Superpipe will be open
to the public through the entire season.
Details: (800) 222-7275,
www.parkcitymountain.com
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
For many Olympic contenders, speed is the thing, but if you go to
Soldier Hollow in Wasatch Mountain State Park, you might just want
to take it slow.
Where cattle once grazed, cross-country skiers traverse gentle
trails that loop through the scrub-oak-covered foothills in a quiet
corner of the Heber Valley. Unlike many cross-country systems,
which follow pre-existing roads, Soldier Hollow was mapped out from
scratch. That means that you meander through almost 19 miles of
trails, but, by design, never venture much more than three-quarters
of a mile from the lodge. The paths twist and wiggle, so the
spacious, rolling scenery in front of you is always changing.
“It’s beautiful. It zigzags. It’s very open,” says Valerie Ciptak, a first-time skier who’s more accustomed to navigating New York’s sidewalks. “The buzz is really here and you can feel it.”
Ciptak glides across the snow at 4 to 5 miles per hour, 15 if she’s really motoring. The Olympic skiers could reach speeds of up to 40 miles per hour — in grueling competitions from intense sprints to 50-kilometer marathons to ski-and-shoot biathlons.
Site: Soldier Hollow, Wasatch Mountain State Park.
Cost: Adults $15, children under 12 free. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Season: December to January.
Details: (435) 654-2002,
www.soldierhollow.orgthe olympic winter games of 2002the games commence february 8 and run through february 24 in salt lake city and surrounding areas. more than 2,300 athletes from some 80 countries are expected to compete. it might take a miracle or a small fortune to get tickets for some events, but for details, call (800) 842-5388 or log on to
www.saltlake2002.com. the salt lake organizing committee is selling individual tickets, packages, and ticket and lodging combinations through various vendors. there are also online ticket auctions. —