Olympic, Winter, Paralympic History: The first recorded game was held in 776 BC in Athens, Greece. It was a single even, a 220 yard foot race. In 395 AD the Roman Emperor abolished the games and denounced them as a pagan festival. They were revived in 1894 by French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin and the first modern Olympics were held in 1896 in Chamonix, France, tho they were not accepted as such until 1926. Paralympics, for athletes with disabilities, began in 1960 and in 2002 will be the first time the host city of the Winter Games is sponsoring them parrell to the Winter Games.
Organization Structure, Symbols, Emblems: I won't bore you with the structure. We all know the 5 colored rings, representing the five contintents, are the symbol of the Olympics, but what about the Paralympics. There symbol is 3 tae-geuks (like a curved rain drop turned on its side) colored green, red, and blue representing Mind, Body and Spirit. The Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Emblem is a snowflake with 3 colored sections, Amber for Courage, Suset for Culture, and Mountain Shadow (blue) for Contrast of Utah's desert to mountain landscape. The Paralympic Emblem is a red sphere for Unity on the top, in the middle two braod green and blue fluid lines representing athletes in motion, and on the bottom the 3 tae-geuks. The Olympic Mascots were inspired from the petroglpyhics of animal images found in Utah. They are: Powder, a snowshoe hare, Copper, a coyote, and Coal, an American black bear. They represent the motto: Swifter, Higher, Stronger. The Paplympics Mascot is Otto, the otter representing vitality and agility. Also Otto is eight in Italian and this is the 8th Paralympics.
Torch & Torch Relay, Environment, 2002 Cultural Olympiad: The torch relay will take 65 days and this will be the first time the torch travels to Alaska on it's way to Salt Lake City. SLOC is taking applications now for torch bearers. Anyone can nominate someone, be aware the bearer must purchase there torch at the cost of approximately $1000. See the official 2002 Olmpic page for more information and the application process. There are 3 pillars host cities must incorporate into the Olympics to provide the optimum conditions for the athletes. They are sport, which is the games, Culture, celebrating artist's accomplishments along side of the athlete's accomplishments. Utah will have special artist's exhibits and performances before, during and after the Olympics. And third Environment. Utah is planting 100,000 trees in Utah, umproving watersheds, restoring wetlands and recycyling of waste during the Olympics.
