Dave Thorvald

(Note: This is part three of the SLC Winter Olympics Flashback series from Dave Thorvald and Dan Funboy)

Just when I thought we'd arrived a week too early, the crowds poured in from around the world, everywhere folks seemed to be hustling elsewhere - I noticed various recognizable media folks and tried to guess where people were from. Safe to say, a predominantly northern/eastern European (read=white) crowd but, cool hearing all sorts of languages as we cruised around downtown Salt Lake.

When first arriving in Utah, we took our second look at the torch which come through Logan late in the evening in the world-round relay. Folks from the town came out to line the streets depsite the cold.  Earlier in the day, I stopped by the local ice rink to watch the Swiss hockey team practice.  Teams and athletes were spread out all over the region (even up into Idaho) for practice facilities before their individual events kicked off.

A few weeks prior, Dan and I walked down to the Olympia's Farmer's Market to see the hand-off and a pre-Olympic rally of sorts - a few corporate trucks and local performers.  The torch bearers is accompanied by a couple of attendents and followed by a ugly, (here un-named) corporate-sponsored vehicle with a coldroun of flamage in the truck bed.  The torch-bearers (selected from applications) wear sporty suits (which they get to keep) and run 1km or so.  For $300 you can buy your torch and many were and selling them on eBay for more.

Along with the SLC Flashback series, I produce a podcast called the Canucks Outsider, the latest episode of which features Dan Funboy and I talking about the upcoming Olympics over beers at the Eastside Club in Olympia, WA.  In this case, mostly the re-vamped Canadian Alpine skiiing team, Men's hockey tourney and ski-jumping.

If you enjoy home-grown commentary (and don't mind moderately ribald hockey talk) then I encourage you to subscribe to the feed for more Olympic chatter over the upcoming games, or you can just download the episode.

In February 2002, Dan Funboy (an encyclopeadia of sporting insight) and me, (Dave Thorvald - writer, podcaster, miscellaniaist) headed south from Olympia, WA to Utah for the duration of the Winter Olympics.

During the following month, we watched while the Games come together, temporary venues erected, and the waves of people cycle through.  Events and subsequent drama unfolded as we attended 25+ events crammed into 13 days of action and activity - including 4 Team Canada Men's hockey matches, Mens and Women's Gold Medal Curling, W's 1/2 pipe Snowboarding, M's Giant Slalom, 120M Ski jump, 10km x-country and the Barenaked Ladies.