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Show How much would Davis County benefit from Winter Olympics? ByTOMHARALDSEN bountiful-how much would Davis County benefit from , Salt Lake City's hosting of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games? While that question spurs purely speculation at this point, evidence that the county could benefit has surfaced. Take, for instance, the hosting by Utah of . the 1990 United States Figure Skating Championships, which will come to the Salt Palace next February 4-11. Nita Sniteman of Farmington is co-chairman : of that event, having been intricately involved in the 1984 championships also hosted by Salt Lake City; 5 ."rev :J "I think by the fact that weVe gotten the Championships here twice says something about our community's commu-nity's ability to host world class events," she stated. "It helps depict our strong reputation, shows the IOC that Salt Lake City will support amateur fitrnrft slratififf." event in 1984, with the final few events sellouts. During that competition, compe-tition, as will probably be true in February, the figures portions of the championships were conducted, in part, at the Bountiful Recreation Center Ice Arena. Skaters also used the Bountiful arena to practice. Should the 1998 Winter Games come to Salt Lake City, the Bountiful Bounti-ful arena could be used again, though that is certainly not a guarantee, But Ms. Sniteman pointed out that the experiences of 1984 were a large determining fact6r in giving the 1990 championships to Salt Lake City again, "the first time a city has hosted the i ChampibnsMpTsd Sdbh after 'H previously hosting themshe said. "After the '84 Nationals, the USFSA-was very impressed with the friendliness and hospitality of the Salt Lake City-Bountiful area," she' said. "They liked the close prox-. imity of skiing, hotels, etc. Those ' are benefits that we could offer to - the Winter Games." It was in May of 1987 that the . Utah delegation won the rights to host the '90 Nationals during a convention con-vention in Milwaukee. Ms. Sniteman feels that it's possible in the future that Salt Lake City could host the World Championships, as San Francisco Fran-cisco will do in 1991. As for which local athletes could be involved in 1998, Ms. Sniteman, the mother herself of two world-class world-class skaters in daughter Heather and son Clay, said that while the current prominent members of Bountiful's Utah Figure Skating Club will probably be finished with competition com-petition by then, "we have a lot of younger skaters who certainly have the potential to be on the US. team.' She added that figure skating in Utah as a whole has benefitted and gotten stronger because of the '84 Nationals Nation-als being held here. A similar effect is most likely to occur after the '90 .Nationals as well. ,1 D o- Ms. Sniteman said that the Salt Palace was nearly filled for each |
