Olympic organizers are focusing on just four of the dozen or so sites being considered for the cross-country and biathlon events during the 2002 Winter Games.
Both local governments and private landowners are competing for the project, worth an estimated $17 million - the amount of money the Salt Lake Organizing Committee will invest to ready the site for the Olympics.Four sites - Sherwood Hills in Logan Canyon, North Fork Park near Ogden, Wasatch Mountain State Park near Midway, and Squaw Peak in Provo Canyon - will be scrutinized this week by international experts in the two sports.
Hermod Bjorkestol of Norway is studying the sites for the International Ski Federation along with Janez Vodicar of Slovania, who's here for the International Biathlon Union.
The pair, who'll be in Utah through the end of next week, will report on their findings later this month. A site is expected to be recommended to the organizing committee board of trustees in September.
The international experts will also take a look around the Mountain Dell Golf Course, the site that organizers originally selected but later rejected for the skiing and shooting competitions.
And they may also see some of the other sites that want the venue: the Round Valley Golf Course in Morgan, the East Canyon Resort in East Canyon, the Jordanelle Overlook near Heber City and some land in Woodruff, Rich County.
Several sites that didn't submit formal proposals are also available, including the Snowbasin ski resort near Ogden, land in the Heber City and Coalville areas and another site near East Canyon State Park.
Seven local sports and organizing committee officials have been sifting through the proposed sites behind closed doors since the May 1 deadline for submitting proposals.
The group, lead by SLOC sports director Anne Marie Jensen, toured the sites last weekend before deciding which look the most promising. But Jensen said none of the sites are really out of the running.
She declined to identify the sites that will be given the most attention by the international experts because organizers may end up looking elsewhere if those sites present problems.
"We're not going to eliminate anyone or offend anyone," Jensen said. "We're not ready at this time to discourage anyone. Every one of them is still viable."
The four sites that will be focused on this week submitted the most complete pitches for the project, according to Dave Johnson, SLOC vice president for Games.
He, too, said organizers want to make sure there are plenty of sites to choose from in case none of the four turn out to be acceptable. "Now, we're being very careful," Johnson said.
There's a reason organizers are so skittish. Last year, they announced they wanted to replace their original choice for the sporting venue, the Mountain Dell Golf Course.
The golf course didn't get enough snow, they said, and couldn't be turned into a permanent training site for winter athletes. The organizing committee proposed moving the events into the Little Dell canyons above the golf course.
A large group from the community was formed to review the move in a series of public meetings. But environmental opposition quickly surfaced within the committee.
Olympic organizers tried to defend the Little Dell site but had to give up after finding out that although Salt Lake City owned the property, the federal government controlled its development because of the reservoirs built there.
An environmental study required by the federal government could take six years to complete - yet the Olympics are less than five years away.
The organizing committee wants to begin construction in 1998 and hold the U.S. national championships on the course in 2000, and the World Cup there in 2001.