Tattered flag -- a poignant moment in time that almost didn't happen

The controversy began a few days before the Games were to begin.

The International Olympic Committee had turned down a request by the U.S. Olympic Committee to allow members of the American team to carry the tattered flag recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center in the Opening Ceremony. The IOC has strict rules governing the Opening Ceremony, and the rule is that athletes are prohibited from any political display during the march of nations. The president of the USOC acquiesced, stating the position of the IOC was "clearly understandable."

The Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic Winter Games had the opposite reaction.

Maybe our reaction was so strong because we were in New York and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11. SLOC had planned to unveil the Olympic Torch and announce its 11,500 torchbearers on Sept. 12 at Battery Park in New York City with Lady Liberty looking on in the distance. SLOC President Mitt Romney was scheduled to throw the first pitch at Yankee Stadium the evening of Sept. 11. (Truth be told, he even planned to wear a "Red Sox" jersey under his Olympic shirt.)

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was in midtown Manhattan heading to a rehearsal meeting at Battery Park. My boss, Mitt Romney, was briefing federal officials in Washington. And then the unimaginable happened. To this day, the magnitude of the horror is hard for me to comprehend. Maybe it was being a witness to this national tragedy or maybe it was just the right thing to do only five months after Sept. 11, SLOC was committed to having the recovered flag in the Opening Ceremony.

On Feb. 5, just three days before the Opening Ceremony, I told Mitt a firestorm was about to hit the press. New York City Port Authority police officers were not going to bring the World Trade Center flag to Salt Lake City as the IOC had said "no" to having it part of the Opening Ceremony. Mitt's response, "What and why?"

I explained that the IOC saw the flag's presence as an undesirable expression of nationalist sentiment at a major international event.

Immediately, we issued a press statement saying we respectfully disagreed with the IOC's decision. Next, Mitt called IOC President Jacques Rogge and asked for a meeting that day. The full IOC was in Salt Lake City at the time, but the earliest the meeting could occur was around 10 p.m. at the Little America Hotel.

I was present at the meeting. The debate was intense, but Mitt would not relent. We positioned the flag as not only that of the United States but also that of the world. The victims of Sept. 11 were of every race, religion and ethnicity representing 80 different nations. The Salt Lake Games had athletes from 78 nations, many of which lost innocent civilians that day.

Finally, with enough pressure from SLOC the IOC gave in. It was nearly 1 a.m. and the bleary group headed out of the meeting to be met by producers from the "Today Show." Despite the hour, we walked across the street to the Grand America Lobby and gave a unified statement to be aired that morning, Feb. 6. The tattered ground zero flag would be brought into Olympic stadium at the Opening Ceremony of the Salt Lake City Winter Games on Friday, Feb. 8.

A year ago, a frayed, ash-covered flag with 12 stars missing entered Rice-Eccles Stadium accompanied by an honor guard of U.S. athletes and New York City police and firefighters. A hush fell over the crowd of 55,000 at the sight of the flag with a giant hole ripped through the red and white stripes. The athletes clutching the flag felt a wind lift it for a moment toward the sky. In my mind, a powerful display of American patriotism and an international hope for unity is my most poignant memory of the Games, and it almost didn't happen.

Copyright C 2003 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.