Lest there be any suspicion that last summer's announcement of "Nagano, Japan," put the bid committee for the Salt Lake City Olympics into a dark blue funk it would never be able to pull out of, consider bid committee chairman Tom Welch's intensive training prior to coming here to the Albertville Olympic Games.
"I lost 15 pounds before I arrived," said Welch earlier this week while resting between periods of a USA hockey match in Meribel, "I wanted to make sure I was ready."Since his arrival here almost two weeks ago, Welch has been putting the 15 pounds back on.
In his business, when duty calls, you eat.
"It's pretty much been three meals a day," said Welch.
Morning, noon and night, Welch and Dave Johnson, his bid committee vice president, have been entertaining as many members of the International Olympic Committee as possible. By now they personally know every maitre d' in Courchevel - the resort of the rich and famous where most of the 92 IOC delegates are staying during the 16-day run of the Albertville Games.
Over the past two years, during Salt Lake's bid campaign for the 1998 Winter Games, Welch, Johnson and their committee got to know each and every one of the 92 IOC delegates. And just because a majority of those delegates voted for Nagano over Salt Lake at their convention in Birmingham last June - thereby granting the '98 Winter Games to Japan - the Utah delegation has neither forgotten their names, or their eating habits.
"I can still tell you what every one of them drinks," said Johnson.
The loss to Nagano was a setback, no question, but the trauma ended soon enough. "The resiliency of the human spirit is truly amazing," said Welch, who is now as intent on "Utah 2002" as he ever was for "Utah 1998."
Maybe more so, because, as Welch said after receiving what he perceived as an across-the-board positive reception from the IOC delegates here the past two weeks, "it's like rush week is over, and now they're treating us nice."
"Some of them are calling us to have dinner," said Johnson.
Salt Lake City and Aosta, Italy, the fifth-place finisher last summer at Birmingham, are the only two Winter Games-hopeful cities making their presence felt in Albertville. Jaca, Spain, and Oostersund, Sweden, aren't here, and neither has reportedly decided whether to try again.
And even Aosta is still a questionable contender for 2002, according to Johnson, who said a public referendum is on the next ballot in Italy, and Olympic approval is not expected.
Officially, no city can begin the bidding process for the 2002 Games until 1994 - a year before Decision Day - write it down - on June 17, 1995 in Budapest.
"All we're trying to do is make sure we don't create a vacuum for another city to come into," said Welch. "Our approach here, and for the next year or two, isn't one of selling. It's renewing friendships and letting everyone know we're being true to what we've said in the past. We're in the people relations business. That's what this is all about."
And so, on this past Monday night, for instance, there was a small dinner party hosted by the Utahns consisting of the IOC delegates from Hungary, Australia and Great Britain; on Tuesday morning, there was Mongolia for breakfast and Portugal for lunch, on Wednesday, South Korea for lunch and Swaziland for dinner; and scheduled for Thursday night is a little get-together dinner with the IOC delegates from Mauristius and Cameroon.
The "Utah 2002" battle cry here in Albertville is "Hey waiter." Either that or "Je Voudrais acheter" - "I want to buy." (Or maybe "Acceptez-vous les cheques de yovage?" - "Do you accept traveler's checks?"
It's nonstop work but somebody's got to do it. Welch knows that when he returns, he'll be a bigger man for it.