Five Olympic sports at actual Olympic venues in Utah offer a taste of the Olympic experience.
There are also Olympic events not on actual Olympic sites that offer the same real-life insight into games that will soon hold the world's attention.There are the bobsled, Ice Rocket (luge) and ski jumping at the Winter Sports Park, speed skating at the Oquirrh Sports Park and alpine skiing at Deer Valley and Park City. Anyone can ride, slide, glide and go airborne for the cost of a ticket at one of the Olympic venues.
There are also opportunities to try other events.
- Cross country skiing/biathlon: Skiers can be competitive or take the casual approach to skinny skis and long-stride on a snow-packed course.
There are cross-country races every weekend through February, intended to attract even the most beginning of Nordic skiers.
Scheduled for Saturday is the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Wasatch Citizens series race at Mountain Dell Golf Course. Kids will race between one and five kilometers, novices 5Ks and the other skiers 10Ks.
For a change, there will be a ski archery race at Bryce Canyon as part of the Winter Festival in February. This race is similar to an Olympic biathlon with the exception that competitors shoot arrows instead of bullets at strategically placed targets along the course.
Two regular biathlon races were held earlier this month through the Utah Winter Games. They will be scheduled again during the Winter Games in 1999.
The final race of the year will be a cross-country relay involving three skiers on a team each racing 5Ks.
Information on races is available through Dave Hanscom, 581-7023 or 649-3213.
For those with no interest in racing but who would like to enjoy time on a groomed track, there are seven Nordic centers in Utah - Brian Head (15Ks of track), Homestead (8-10Ks), Ruby's Inn (15Ks), Sherwood Hills (10Ks), Solitude (19Ks), Sundance (8-10Ks) and White Pine. Because of the late snow, White Pine has not officially opened for the season.
- Skating: There are eight rinks in the Salt Lake City area and Ogden. Another is being built in Provo. Not all of them offer skating lessons, but several do, including some rinks that offer "learn to skate" programs for beginners. Anyone can rent skates and venture out onto the ice on their own.
Ice rinks are the Ice Sheet in Ogden; the Acord Ice Rink in West Valley City; Bountiful Recreation Center; Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center; Gallivan Center, downtown Salt Lake City; Sports Park in Sandy; Oquirrh Sports Park in Kearns; and the rink at the Park City Mountain Resort.
- Hockey: Because this is a team sport, it's not as easy to get involved in as free skating. Several ice centers offer hockey programs, including some for beginners and a few programs with no-check games for adults.
Anyone interested in either skating or hockey programs can call one of the ice centers for information.
- Snowboarding: This is a new event added to the Nagano Games. Two Olympics ago, no one was even aware there were people snowboarding. Last Olympics, people were starting to become aware of snowboarding but never would have believed it would be an Olympic event in 1998.
Snowboarding is the fastest-growing of the winter recreation sports. It used to be that boarding was mainly practiced by young people still confined to the classroom on weekdays. Today, the fastest-growing segment of the sport is adults between 25 and 40.
Twelve ski areas in Utah allow snowboarding. Only Alta and Deer Valley don't. All of the areas that do allow it offer lessons and rentals. Several, including Park City, The Canyons, Brighton, Powder Mountain and Brian Head, offer half-pipes and, in some cases, snowboard parks with a number of snow structures for boarders to work off.
It's one thing to sit back and enjoy the Games. It's quite another to project your experience into the event and understand what the athletes are going through. Luckily, here in Utah people can actually live the experience in most of the sports.
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Additional Information
Olympic Events: Where to experience them
Ice Rocket (Luge)
Winter Sports Park
Ski Jumping
Winter Sports Park
Speed Skating
Oquirrh Sports Park
Bobsled
Winter Sports Park
Alpine Skiing
Park City, Deer Valley
Also
Cross Country: 7 centers n Utah
Figure Skating: 4 rinks
Hockey: 5 rinks
Snowboard: 12 ski areas
Freestyle: Winter Sports Park