U.S. cities line up for unlikely bid

When it comes to the Olympics, optimism reigns supreme.

Eight U.S. cities are unveiling bids to host the 2012 Olympics, something that has already taken months of work and thousands of dollars to organize. The due date to turn bids into the U.S. Olympic Committee is Friday.

The winner, to be picked by the USOC in 2002, will be awarded the honor of spending exponentially more time and money vying to become the IOC's choice. The contestants are Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, New York, San Francisco, Tampa, Fla., and Washington, D.C.

But it's highly unlikely the United States would get another Olympics as soon as 2012. Even Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Mitt Romney said there's "not a prayer" of the Games returning here that soon after Salt Lake's Games in 2002.

The 2002 Games, coming so soon after Atlanta's Games in 1996, will have the IOC tacking away from the U.S. for some time. And if Toronto wins the 2008 Games, awarded next year, that could keep them away from North America for as much as another 10 years.

The most notable bid rolling into the USOC this week is the one coming from two-time Olympic host Los Angeles. The bid organizers stressed that L.A. already has most of the venues available, it would cost only $100 million to renovate some sites (the Coliseum, for one) and the only one they would need to build from scratch is for shooting.

Because so many of the other cities would need major building projects and have yet to show they can finance them, L.A. has by far the strongest bid.

But the bid also signalled something else: L.A.'s readiness means it could take the 2004 Games on fairly short notice if Athens keeps botching its preparations.

It's one of the two most-mentioned cities, Seoul is the other, as a fallback for Athens and its 2012 organizers aren't doing anything to douse that idea.

CARRYING A TORCH

Salt Lake organizers announced that the Olympic torch will spend a full day in Colorado Springs on Jan. 31, 2002, one of its final stops before it enters Utah and winds its way to Salt Lake City for the Feb. 8 Opening Ceremony.

The USOC hopes for a similar celebration to 1996, when the event took over Memorial Park and featured dozens of local Olympians.

The catch is this: by Jan. 31, the USOC will have already moved most of its staff to Salt Lake to prepare for the Games, so many will have to catch a plane back home to stage the festivities.

SLOC said procedures for nominating torchbearers will be announced this February.

PLANNING AHEAD

For those hoping to attend the Salt Lake Games, Tuesday is the deadline for requesting tickets on SLOC's Web site, www.saltlake2002.com.

Payment is required when requesting the tickets. Only Visa cards are accepted.

After that, the next opportunity to buy tickets will be via auction. High-demand prime-seat tickets for the Opening Ceremony, figure skating finals and hockey medal round, for example, will be auctioned on the Web site to the highest bidders in the spring of 2001.

Phone and Internet sales will resume in June 2001 for all remaining tickets. The U.S. allotment of tickets is 885,000 for 165 events.

UNDER FIRE

The movement to spur the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban androstenedione, popularly known as andro, has picked up more voices.

Last week, the Healthy Competition Foundation, sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, formed a task force on the issue and called for doctors to submit evidence that andro is harmful.

Andro, whose most famous user was slugger Mark McGwire during his historic home run chase, is already banned by the International Olympic Committee. But it can be bought over-the-counter in the United States as an unregulated nutritional supplement and it is allowed by the professional sports leagues despite evidence that it operates like a steroid.

- Lynn Zinser may be reached at 636-0376 or lzinser@gazette.com

More honors

Colorado Springs native David Hale - pictured Friday while competing against Colorado College - is already a first-round NHL pick and a key player for national title contender North Dakota. Now he's headed to the International World Junior Championships as a defenseman for the U.S. team.

USA Hockey included him on its 22-player roster. The tournament is Dec. 26 - Jan. 5 in several Russian cities, including Moscow.

Hale, a freshman at North Dakota, became the first first-round NHL pick from the Springs when the New Jersey Devils selected him with the 22nd overall pick in June.

- Lynn Zinser; The Gazette

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