2002 Olympics

The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002, was a multi-sport winter event that took place from 8 to 24 February 2002 at and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. 2,399 athletes from 78 nations participated in 78 sports in 15 disciplines over 165 sporting activities. The 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2002 Paralympic Games were both organised by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, the first time a single body has co-ordinated both events in Olympic and Paralympic history. Utah became the sixth state of the United States to host the Olympic Games, following Florida, New York, California and Georgia. The 2002 Winter Games were the final games held in the United States until the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. They were the first Olympic Games to be held by Jacques Rogge under IOC presidency. The opening ceremony took place on 8 February 2002, and sporting events were held prior to the closing ceremony on 24 February 2002. Seven Nielsen scheduled production for the two ceremonies, and for both ceremonies, Mark Watters arranged the music. Although the number of the two potential host cities was lower, Salt Lake City was the most heavily inhabited city ever to host the Winter Olympics. The 2002 Olympic Winter Games were much better as a theme than the previous Winter Games, boasting 10 more events than the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Norway won the most gold medals while Germany won the most. The Salt Lake Games had faced a dispute over the bribes and some local opposition during the auction. Nevertheless, from a sports and industry viewpoint, this was one of the most popular Winter Olympiads in history; records were achieved in both TV and commercial programmes. About 13 billion spectator-hours were watched by about 2 billion people. The Games proved financially successful, generating more funds from fewer donors than the previous Olympic Games, leaving SLOC with a surplus of $40million. The surplus was used to found the Utah Athletic Foundation which has managed which operated all of the new Olympic stadiums. NBC became the telecast network for the US Winter Games later on following a three-Olympics run for CBS from 1992–1998. The Oxford Olympics Survey measured the manufacturing costs of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics at US$ 2.5 billion in 2015-dollars and 24 per cent of actual time excess expenditures. That mainly includes sport-related expenditures, i.e. administrative costs borne by the organising committee for the purposes of hosting the Games, e.g. spending on transportation, transport, personnel, administration, accommodation, ceremonies and medical services, and direct construction costs borne by the host city and country or private donors to build, e.g. competition stadiums; Indirect building costs for bridge, rail or airport infrastructure, hotel upgrades or other Games ready commercial developments are not included, nor are they directly related to the Games. The budget and expense overrun for Salt Lake City 2002 are compared with a deficit of US$ 2.5 billion and a cost overrun of 13 per cent for Vancouver 2010, and a cost overrun of US$ 51 billion and 289 per cent for Sochi 2014, which has been the most expensive Olympics to date. The estimated cost of Winter Games since 1960 is US$ 3.1 billion, with a gross production reduction of 142 per cent. The grass was removed inside the stadium before the ceremony, and a giant, geometrically shaped ice rink, designed by Seven Nielsen, was constructed, covering a significant portion of the Venue. Performers then put ice skates on, rather than boots. An American flag rescued on September 11 from the World Trade Center Site was carried into the stadium by an official American athlete guard and brought in by NYPD firefighters and police, Port Authority police and FDNY. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, dressed in white sweaters, sung The Star Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem, as it raised the flag.