The Salt Lake Organizing Committee will soon start the search for someone to run the torch relay that will bring the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece, to the 2002 Winter Games.
SLOC announced Thursday that it will issue a request for proposals for a relay event management team Monday. The contract is expected to be awarded in mid-May.Whoever receives the contract will end up working with whatever corporate sponsor agrees to underwrite the multimillion dollar event that will culminate during the opening ceremonies in Rice Stadium Feb. 8, 2002.
Coca-Cola sponsored the torch relay during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. The 84-day trip from Los Angeles to Atlanta covered 15,000 miles in 43 states, including Utah.
The flame on that journey was lit in Olympia, Greece, the ancestral home of the Olympic Games.
Coca-Cola has already signed on as a sponsor of the 2002 Winter Games, but the Atlanta-based company has not yet announced whether it will participate in the torch relay again.