Members of the Alcohol Policy Coalition of Utah do not want the 2002 Winter Games sponsored by a beer manufacturer. Yet Dr. George J. Van Komen, the group's chairman, can't even get in the door to talk about it with the Olympics' Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

During a press conference Tuesday, Van Komen said he has had conversations with SLOC officials. "They have not accepted my request to speak with them," he said. "I'd like to speak with them face to face, express my concerns."If SLOC wants him to, "I'll go on my knees" to request a ban on beer advertising in connection with the Olympic Games, he added. If SLOC is responsive it could take the concerns to the U.S. Olympic Committee, according to Van Komen.

The concerns of the coalition are shared by the Utah Medical Association and the Utah PTA, according to resolutions both groups approved. They want:

- No official beer for the Olympic Games.

- No advertising of alcoholic beverages at any of the venue sites of the Games.

- No "beer tents" or other alcohol promotions associated with the Winter Olympic Park, Olympic Village or award ceremony sites.

Coalition members have heard that the U.S. Olympic Committee is negotiating with Anheuser-Busch, makers of Budweiser, over a possible multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract to be an official sponsor of the Olympics. The sponsorship would extend to the summer Games and the Salt Lake extravaganza.

The coalition recognizes that many drink alcohol and the group is not attempting to ban alcohol. But Van Komen called connecting the 2002 Winter Games to an official beer "inappropriate and improper."

The Olympics celebrate athletic skill, while alcohol dulls reaction time and physically damages people who drink, Van Komen said. "Alcohol causes five times as many deaths in the world as all illegal drugs combined, such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine."

At the press conference in the offices of the Utah Medical Association, 540 E. 500 South, Van Komen said many Utahns would be offended by the specter of seeing beer marketed worldwide as an official sponsor of the 2002 Winter Games. That would be inappropriate, given Utah's strong identification with the LDS Church and its opposition to alcohol, he said.

The Nagano Olympics stressed the cultural affiliation of the sponsoring city, and the Salt Lake event should do the same, he said.

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Linda Plouzek, of the PTA's Safety and Welfare Committee, said the group has 150,000 members statewide. Members of the group voted for the resolution against tying alcohol to the 2002 Winter Games.

"Alcohol remains the leading drug problem among our nation's youth," she said. Young people will be watching the Games on television, and they can be susceptible to alcohol ads.

Dr. Joseph G. Cramer, a pediatrician who is president of the Utah Medical Association, said the association's House of Delegates passed the resolution last September. The Olympics are suppose to maximize human athleticism, he said. "Then to have an official sponsor that actually deteriorates the performance of the athletes and the citizenry" is a strange juxtaposition, he said.

What will happen if the 2002 Winter Games get a beer sponsor? Van Komen said that would have "a chilling effect" on the ability of Olympics officials to recruit the thousands of volunteers that the 2002 Games will need.

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