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SALT LAKE CITY — The 2002 Winter Olympics provided remarkable opportunities for Salt Lake City and the state of Utah while giving the region a facelift in its international image. Five particular faces, however, helped give the city and state such an appearance, whether it was on ice skates or in Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Apolo Anton Ohno
After finally being declared qualified for the race after a controversy in which he was accused of throwing a race so that teammate Shani Davis would qualify for the Games, Ohno found himself involved in on-ice struggles that certainly merited Olympic-sized proportions. After a disqualification in the 500-meter race, he was leading the skaters in the 1,000-meter competition before he and three other skaters all fell in a series of collisions on the final lap. Steven Bradbury, representing Australia, skated past the pile with ease to win the gold medal, becoming the first person from the southern hemisphere to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics. Ohno scrambled to his feet and crossed the finish line to win silver.
The 1,500-meter race was even more messy on the ice and politically. Ohno won gold, but only after first-place finisher of South Korea's Kim Dong-Sung was disqualified for blocking Ohno in a rule violation called cross tracking. Despite the disagreement of fourth-place finisher Fabio Carta of Italy and the protest of the South Korean team to the chief official — and later, the International Skating Union, International Olympic Committee and the Court of Arbitration for Sport — the IOC decided not to take action. The CAS determined that there was no provision in the short-track rule book for overturning a judgment by a referee. As a result, thousands of emails protesting the race results crashed the IOC's email server, while thousands of accusatory letters, many of which contained death threats, were sent to Ohno and the committee. The controversy only fueled Korean anti-American sentiment, expressed over the airwaves and soccer, after U.S. President George Bush had named North Korea as one of three members of the Axis of Evil, upsetting many South Koreans.
Since his turn in Salt Lake City, Ohno has won six more Olympic metals and become the winningest American Winter Olympic athlete of all time, while starring in the 2007 "Dancing with the Stars" TV program and securing sponsorships with the likes of McDonald's and Coca-Cola.
Sarah Hughes
After winning the 2001 Skate Canada International and claiming the bronze medal at the 2002 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Hughes appeared on the cover of Time magazine even before stepping into her skates in Salt Lake. That marked only the beginning of the attention she would receive.
After placing fourth in the short program, Hughes won gold in the long, landing seven triple jumps and two triple-triple combinations. The Great Neck, N.Y., native pulled ahead of three contenders after they all made mistakes in their respective long programs. After her victory, Hughes won the silver medal at the 2003 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and placed sixth at the 2003 World Figure Skating Championships. In 2003, Hughes began her studies at Yale University before being inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. Hughes received a bachelor’s degree from Yale in May 2009. Hughes' biography, “Sudden Champion: the Sarah Hughes Story,” was written by Richard Krawiec in 2002.
Jimmy Shea
The third generation of his family to take part in the Winter Olympics, Shea did well for his family name. Shea not only won gold in skeleton in 2002, he became the first American to win a World Cup race and a World Championship in the sport and has won more World Cup victories than any other American.
Shea, from Lake Placid, N.Y., was the third generation of his family to take part in Winter Games. His father competed in Nordic combined and cross-country skiing events in the 1964 Winter Olympics, and his grandfather, Jack Shea, won two gold medals in the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in speed skating.
Though Shea retired in October 2005, he has since founded the Shea Family Foundation, which raises money to help kids in sports. He resides in Park City, where he currently serves on the Utah Board of Economic Development. Shea and wife Kellee have two daughters.
Jamie Salé and David Pelletier
Salé and Pelletier may be regarded in this story as one person, but that is simply because their experiences in Salt Lake were congruent with each other.
Salé, a Calgary, Alberta, native, won the 2001 World Championships with the Edmonton-born Pelletier before going to Salt Lake City. A minor jump step out error from Russian skater Anton Sikharulidze, who performed with Elena Berezhnaya, and a clean program from the Canadians had convinced some that the latter had clinched gold. However, the two placed second in the long program in a five-to-four decision. Though the duo accepted the silver medal, this result spurred an outcry from the North American media and fans. After the competition, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne admitted she had been pressured by the head of her federation, Didier Gailhaguet, into awarding the long program to the Russians, leading to a judging controversy. The scandal ultimately resulted in the suspension of several judges and officials. The results of the competition were discarded and Salé and Pelletier were awarded a second set of gold medals in a special ceremony later in the week.
Salé and Pelletier were married late in 2005 and divorced in June 2010. However, they remain as skating partners and have since been touring North America with the figure-skating show Stars on Ice. In 2006, they served as commentators on "Olympic Ice," which aired on USA Network during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Each was also inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in March 2009. Their son, Jesse Joe Pelletier, will turn 5 years old this year.
Mike Eruzione
Who could forget how the Olympic torch in Rice-Eccles Stadium was actually lit during the Games’ opening ceremonies? Eruzione, the American former ice hockey player who was the captain of the 1980 Winter Olympics United States national team that defeated the Soviet Union in the famous “Miracle on Ice” game, led his team members, dressed in their old USA hockey jerseys, into the stadium to do the honors.
Eruzione, who scored the winning goal against the Soviets, accepted the torch from former Olympic skier and Park City native Picabo Street and former U.S women's hockey captain Cammi Granato at the base of the cauldron. And then, just as he did on the medal stand at the Lake Placid Games, Eruzione motioned to his teammates to join him. Together, they touched the torch to the base of the 117-foot-tall cauldron.
"I think this is probably the final journey. It's hard to imagine yourself being an Olympic athlete and winning a gold medal, then 22 years go by and you carry the torch and light the Olympic flame," Eruzione said at the time. "It was the hardest secret I've ever had to keep."
Current U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney had final say as to who would actually light the torch, and while the events of 9/11 caused him to reconsider, the nod ultimately stayed with Eruzione and the team.
Eruzione retired from competition after the 1980 Olympics despite contract offers from the New York Rangers, stating that he'd already reached the pinnacle of achievement. Eruzione later became a television broadcaster for the NHL on USA Network and the NHL on Fox. He also was a commentator at five Olympic Games, working for both ABC and CBS.
Eruzione returned to Boston University, his alma mater, to be the assistant coach for the hockey team for three seasons, and he works as director of Special Outreach. Currently, he is a part owner of the USHL Omaha Lancers franchise, located in Omaha, Neb.
Rhett Wilkinson is a journalism and speech communications major at Utah State University. He has previously been an intern for the Deseret News. He can be reached at rhett.wilkinson@yahoo.com or at Twitter: wilklogan.
