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Controversies surrounding the Opening Ceremony in Beijing have come out in the seven days since they happened, like the little girl who didn't really sing the song she pretended to sing. But, was anything fake during the 2002 Opening Ceremony here in Salt Lake City?
Comparing a Winter Olympics to a Summer Olympics is like comparing apples to oranges. That being said, which games are better, China's or ours in 2002?
Fraser Bullock said, "We had the crowds going. [It was] a very exciting, more vocal, just kind of a more charged atmosphere in Salt Lake City."
Well, Fraser Bullock might be a little biased. He was the Salt Lake Organizing Committee Chief Operating Officer for the 2002 games. But, he does say China's done a great job, even though a few controversies have come out about the Opening Ceremony. But, take heart, our games didn't use fake singers or lip-synching.
"For most outdoor events, much of the music is prerecorded," he said.
OK, so there was quite a bit of lip-synching. Many singers, including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sang along with a recording.
"But it was their voices that did the prerecording," he said.
So it's not like they pulled a Milli Vanilli and used a different choir to do the real singing. Plus, not all musical acts were from a can. Bon Jovi was live during the Closing Ceremony. Other than that, Salt Lake Olympic officials say there were no tricks that they know of.
Former SLOC Member and Salt Lake Chamber President Lane Beattie said, "I'm sure there was technology that was used [to enhance the ceremonies], but I'm not aware of anyone where everyone thought was doing one thing that really wasn't."
Lane Beattie says there were no computer-generated fireworks, but there is something he wants to come clean about.
"I know it will be a disappointment to many people, but the dinosaurs that reached their heads up over at the end of the, I think it was the Closing Ceremonies, it was so dynamic, they really weren't real," he explained.
I guess the real live dinosaurs they were planning to use just weren't pretty enough.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
