Flashback to 2002, Day 6

February 16, 2002
I've had a lot of people ask what questions we get the most. Besides transportation issues (Where do I get a shuttle to ________?), the biggest one is "Why can't I get a beer here? I just look them in the eye and say that since the Olympics are REALLY for the athletes, and we were concerned that a bunch of drunken rock and roll rowdies MIGHT not be as polite and respectful of the Medals Ceremonies as we would like, the decision was made to restrict alcohol on the OMP. It's amazing that no one questions that, especially when I say, "I know that it NEVER happens, but we didn't want to take any chances." They usually grin and say OK. One of the other hosts was going on about the property being owned by the Church, etc., etc., which only got people going and isn't necessarily the issue, since the Church only specified that the tickets would be free, nothing else.
The best beer story here, however, has been the groupie for one of the bands who was so plastered that the security thought that he was a risk and kicked him out of the plaza and the band sat and waited for their pre-show "warmup" delivery. We finally had to track the guy down to bring the booze. (No restrictions on "Talent".)
Our team leader of the other night, the overly enthusiastic one, has been assigned permanently to sectors far, far away from us. The other guy in the IB wants to hire me as his permanent lobbyist, since I did such a good job on this one.
LOST AND FOUND OF THE NIGHT: A nice lady came in and wanted to know how she could get her blanket back. It seems that as they got off the shuttle, a policeman helping with the crowd had a heart attack, so some of the folks donated their blankets and coats to keep him warm. Apparently, her blanket accompanied him in the ambulance. She just didn't know where to call for the return. We gave her the little paper with the phone number of the Lost and Found Center - I hope she has some luck.
Everything you may have heard about the crowds on Saturday were true. It took me 25 minutes to get from the ZCMI Mall 2 1/2 blocks to our check-in gate. The Main Street Plaza was wall-to-wall. I hope the businesses were having a good day.
The record for least clothing worn to the OMP has to be the girls who came in sleeveless, bare midriff tops and windbreakers, jeans, no socks and Birkenstocks. They said they thought it was indoors, but I can't imagine wearing that just to walk anywhere from their car! A couple of sweet older men who are hosts had spare socks they just gave the poor dummys.
It is just incredible how different the crowds are from band to band. The audience for Brooks and Dunn were more mature, more families and more responsible. We had less than half the Lost and Found after their concert. I can't wait to see what we get with N'SYNC.
I have hung around the IB most of the nights, so I told the others I wanted to watch all the Medals Ceremony and they couldn't really refuse. I'm so glad that I did - the darling German girl that I spent so much time helping the other night was the Silver Medalist in the Biathlon! It was just like having a friend up there. It really is worth being there just for the medals presentation. It's so exciting to see those kids getting their recognition. It was a little scary, though, since so many of the other medalists were Norwegian - their fans are fanatics! Most of them were wearing gunny sack tunics and Viking hats with horns. I just tried to stand out of their way...