2002 Winter Olympics

¹Because of the no-commercialization policy of the Olympics on venues, the Delta Center, now the Vivint Smart Home Arena, was labeled as the "Salt Lake Ice Center".

Several medals records were set and/or tied. They included (bold-face indicates broken during the Vancouver Olympics):

• Norway tied the Soviet Union at the 1976 Winter Olympics for most gold medals at a Winter Olympics, with 13.[31]
• Germany set a record for most total medals at a Winter Olympics, with 36.[32]
• The United States set a record for most gold medals at a home Winter Olympics, with 10, tying Norway at the 1994 Winter Olympics.[31]

The 2002 Olympic emblem on the bobsleigh track at the Utah Olympic Park

2002 Olympic Winter Games $5 coin created by the US Mint

Delta's Boeing 777-200 in livery commemorating the Games

Detail of the 2002 Winter Games Olympic Torch

The 2002 Olympic emblem is a snowflake, which consisted of three separate sections. The yellow top section symbolizes the Olympic Flame, and represents the athletes' courage. The orange center section symbolizes the ancient weaving styles of Utah's Native Americans, and represents the region's culture. The blue/purple bottom section symbolizes a snow-capped mountain, and represents the contrast of Utah's mountain and desert areas. The orange/yellow colors above the blue/purple bottom section also gave the appearance of a sun rising from behind a mountain.

An official palette of colors, which ranged from cool blues to warm reds and oranges, was created for Salt Lake 2002. The palette became part of the official design theme named Land of Contrast – Fire and Ice, with the blues representing the cooler, snowy, mountainous regions of Northern Utah, and the oranges and red representing the warmer, rugged, red-rock areas of Southern Utah.[39]

As with all Olympic Games, pictograms, which easily identified the venues, sports, and services for spectators without using a written language, were specifically designed for Salt Lake 2002. The pictograms for these Games mimicked the designs of branding-irons found in the western United States, and used the Fire and Ice theme colors of the Salt Lake 2002 Games. The line thickness and 30-degree angles found in the pictograms mirror those found in the snowflake emblem.[39]

Powder, Copper and Coal
2002 Olympic Mascots

The mascots represent three of the indigenous animals of the Western United States, and are named after natural resources which have long been important to Utah's economy, survival, and culture. All three animals are major characters in the legends of local Native Americans, and each mascot wears a charm around its neck with an original Anasazi or Fremont-style petroglyph.

• Powder – A snowshoe hare, represents the Native American legend when the sun was too close to the earth and was burning it. The hare ran to the top of a mountain, and shot her arrow into the sun. This caused it to drop lower in the sky, cooling the earth.
• Copper – A coyote, represents the Native American legend when the earth froze and turned dark, the coyote climbed to the highest mountaintop and stole a flame from the fire people. He returned and brought warmth and light to the people.
• Coal – An American black bear, represents the Native American legend of hunters who were never able to kill the mighty bear. Today the sons of these hunters still chase the bear across the night sky, as constellations.

Torchbearer in Olympic livery with 2002 Olympic Torch

The 2002 Olympic Torch is modeled after an icicle, with a slight curve to represent speed and fluidity. The Torch measures 33 inches (84 cm) long, 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide at the top, 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) at the bottom, and was designed by Axiom Design of Salt Lake City.[40][41] It was created with three sections, each with its own meaning and representation.[40]

The torch relay was a 65-day run, from December 4, 2001 to February 8, 2002, which carried the Olympic flame through 46 of the 50 states in the United States.[42] The torch covered 13,500 miles (21,700 km), passed through 300 communities, and was carried by 12,012 Torchbearers.[42]

The Olympic Cauldron was designed with the official motto Light the Fire Within and the Fire and Ice theme in mind. It was designed to look like an icicle, and was made of glass which allowed the fire to be seen burning within. The actual glass cauldron stands atop a twisting glass and steel support, is 12 feet (3.7 m) high, and the flame within burns at 900 °F (482.2 °C).[43] Together with its support the cauldron stands 117 feet (36 m) tall and was made of 738 individual pieces of glass. Small jets send water down the glass sides of the cauldron, both to keep the glass and metal cooled (so they would not crack or melt), and to give the effect of melting ice.[44] The cauldron was designed by WET Design of Los Angeles, its frame built by roller coaster manufacturer Arrow Dynamics of Clearfield, Utah, and its glass pieces created by Western Glass of Ogden, Utah. The cauldron's cost was 2 million dollars, and it was unveiled to the public during its original install at Rice-Eccles Stadium (2002 Olympic Stadium) on January 8, 2002.[45] Following the completion of the 2002 Winter Olympics the cauldron was installed at the permanent Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park, next the 2002 Olympic Stadium in Salt Lake City.

A second Olympic cauldron burned at the Awards Plaza in downtown Salt Lake City during the Games. It was known as the Hero's Cauldron and was in the backdrop of every awards ceremony.

Public transportation has expanded greatly due to hosting the Olympics. The biggest project that has been completed is TRAX (light rail) which is used by many locals to this day. Other expansions include widened freeways and roadways throughout the city. TRAX also includes a line that has now extended to the airport making transit easier for tourists and visitors. One article from the Salt Lake Tribune[46] states that 37% of locals use TRAX to commute daily while 25% of travelers within the city use this service. This is a direct result of holding the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and just one of the many positive economic effects on the city.

Utah Olympic Oval

The 2002 Winter Olympics brought a massive amount of success to the Utah skiing industry. Since hosting the Winter Games, Utah has seen a 42% increase in skier and snowboarder visits as of 2010–11. This increase resulted in direct expenditures from skiers and snowboarders growing 67% from $704 million in 2002–2003 to $1.2 billion in 2010–2011.[47]

In preparation for the Winter Games 14 venues were constructed or expanded. The Utah Olympic Park was one of the venues constructed for the Games. The Olympic Park has proven to be one of the most successful venues to date because it has been maintained in top competition form. Due to the routine maintenance of the park Utah has been able to host a large number of winter competitions since 2002. Some of these events include, more than 60 World Cup events, as well as seven world championships, including the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup and various other sporting events. Hosting these various events has resulted in approximately $1 billion being pushed into the economy.[48] During 2013–2014 Utah held 16 various winter sport competitions bringing $27.3 million to the economy of the Utah.[49] After holding the Olympics, Utah became home to two National Governing Bodies of Sport.[50] The United States Ski and Snowboard Association is headquartered in Park City, Utah and the U.S. Olympic speed skating team is based out of the Utah Olympic Oval.

In 2017, an exploratory committee was formed to consider whether Salt Lake City should bid to host the Olympics for a second time in 2026 or 2030.[51]

On December 14, 2018 Salt Lake City got the green light to bid for a future Winter Olympics.[52]

The University of Utah was one of the hosts of the 2002 Winter Olympics, the planning committee approached the University of Utah and asked them to build several student dormitories which would serve as athletes' accommodation during the Games. It was agreed that the University would pay approximately $98 million out of the total required amount of $110 million in order to complete the construction. Students of the university have benefited as almost 3,500 of them would be housed here after the Games. This was a great economic benefit to the university since the amount of money used to complete such dormitories could take long to be afforded. Apart from that, the University was also asked to expand Rice Eccles Stadium to accommodate 50,000 people up from 32,000. The University would then be refunded almost $59 million and be given an extra $40 million for its maintenance.[53] It is worth noting that the U.S. team involved in the 2010 Winter Olympics lived in the University of Utah's housing to use the stadium because of its facilities.

The 2002 Olympic Games also benefited the university economically since the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park was elevated by the renovations that took place. Ice rinks were very scarce in Utah, but due to the Olympic Games, they became plentiful and offered several entertainment and training opportunities for hockey players and figure skaters. The Cauldron Park located at the University of Utah which was built with $6.5 million in profits and had the following features: a visitors' center which had a theater that showed a thrilling movie about the Olympic Games of 2002 and a "park" which had a dazzling pool and a V-shaped stone wall with the names of all the medalists of the 2002 Olympic Games. Besides, the park had 17 plates which hung on the fence of the stadium celebrating the highlights of each day of the Olympics. All these features acted as tourist attraction that boosted the economic development of the university. It is indicated that the approximate value of media exposure through print during the Games was equated to $22.9 million. Mainly, this was a huge economic benefit to the university as more and more people got to know about the educational establishment, and this also boosted enrollment and future development.

Holger Preuss in his book The Economics of Staging the Olympics: A Comparison of the Games 1972–2008 argues that "The export of the 'Olympic Games' service results in an inflow of funds to the host city, causing additional production which, in its turn, leads to employment and income effects."[54] According to the study "2002 Olympic Winter Games, Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Impacts", the estimated creation of new job years of employment was 35,424, and additional earnings of $1,544,203,000.[55] It was noted that the increase of Olympic related job started in 1996 and continued until 2003. These effects can be estimated on the ground of historical relationship between job and corresponding population growth. A lot of people migrated into the future place of the Olympic Games for expanding and favorable employment opportunities that the Olympics ensured. Although many of the higher paying jobs created by the Games were occupied by residents, many of the vacated jobs were filled by immigrants who relocated for the better employment opportunities.

Basically, the immigration rate was even larger because the employees immigrated with their families. The additional people paid diverse taxes and fees from their income that created additional revenue on the state and local levels.

Olympic related jobs in Utah started in 1996 with slight job opportunities of less than 100. However, from the job measurement conducted from 1996 to 2002, steady attainment of job opportunities established and a maximum level was noted in 2001 where there were 12,500 job opportunities attained yearly, and approximately 25,070 jobs created in 2002.[56] Therefore, from 1996 to 2002 the sum of employment equated to 35,000 jobs which lasted a year. February 2002, it is when the highest employment opportunities were created compared to other years. There were around 25,070 job opportunities created compared to 35,000 created from 1996–2001.

It is difficult to quantify the impact of the 2002 Olympics on the unemployment rates in Utah, due mostly to the effect of the early 2000s recession. In 1996, the unemployment rate in Utah was approximately 3.4% while the U.S. national average was 5.4% and by the end of 2001, the unemployment rate in Utah was around 4.8% while the national average had risen to 5.7%.[57] There was a high percentage of visitors to the Games, which raised the number of tourists whose consumption and demand prompted the establishment of job opportunities to meet the demands.

The alcohol laws of Utah are known for being some of the most restrictive alcohol laws in the country however having the Olympic Games in Salt Lake helped state officials ease up on a few different laws concerning alcohol in the state of Utah which has helped the nightlife grow and helped more bars and restaurants increase revenues by simply improving the accessibility of alcohol to customers.

During the Olympics, alcohol regulations were not changed to accommodate people coming in from outside Utah to watch and take part in the Games. Officials from the Olympics as well as visitors complained about the unreasonable laws. Shortly after in 2003 the tide began to turn and some of the restrictive laws were altered. The charge to join a "private club" or what is essentially a bar with a membership fee was lowered from five dollars to four dollars. Additionally, they allowed existing members or "sponsors" seven guests instead of five. The maximum amount of alcohol permitted with any one drink from a bar increased from 2 to 2.75 ounces.[58] Beer licenses were also expanded to allow restaurants to serve wine as well with their beer license. Finally, people were now allowed to have more than one drink with them at their table.

This loosening of laws lowered the bar for entry into a bar in Salt Lake City. Changing demographics, due in large part to the Olympics, disrupted the number of people looking to drink as more non-Mormons began to settle in Utah. Travelers have also increased due to the Olympics and account for a share of the increase in liquor sales since the Games. According to The Salt Lake Tribune: sales at Utah's 125 liquor outlets shows a 153 percent increase in liquor sales since 2002, from $156.2 million to $396 million. Even adjusted for inflation, sales have nearly doubled, and per capita spending on alcohol has grown by more than 50 percent.[59]

There was a scandal involving allegations of bribery used to win the rights to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Prior to its successful bid in 1995, the city had attempted four times to secure the games, failing each time. In 1998, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were accused of taking gifts from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) during the bidding process. The allegations resulted in the expulsion of several IOC members, and the adoption of new IOC rules. Although nothing strictly illegal had been done, it was felt that the acceptance of the gifts was morally dubious. The allegations resulted in the expulsion of several IOC members, and the adoption of new IOC rules. Legal charges were brought against the leaders of Salt Lake's bid committee by the United States Department of Justice.[60] Investigations were also launched into prior bidding process by other cities, finding that members of the IOC received bribes during the bidding process for both the 1998 Winter Olympics and 2000 Summer Olympics.[61] In response to the scandal, Mitt Romney was hired as the new president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

The 2002 Games were the first Winter Olympics held after formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency; as a result there were a large number of athletes disqualified following the new testing.[62]

Athletes in cross-country skiing were disqualified for various reasons, including doping by two Russians and one Spaniard, leading Russia to file protests and threaten to withdraw from the competition.

In the first week of the Games, a controversy in the pairs' figure skating competition culminated in the French judge's scores being thrown out and the Canadian team of Jamie Salé and David Pelletier being awarded a gold medal (together with the Russians who were controversially awarded gold previously and kept their medals despite the allegations of vote swapping and buying the votes of the French judge). Allegations of bribery were leveled against many ice-skating judges, leading to the arrest of known criminal Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov in Italy (at the request of the United States). He was released by the Italian officials.[63]