Mitt Romney just couldn't pass up a chance to chomp into a McDonald's hamburger, even if he was in the middle of thanking the fast-food chain for signing on as a sponsor for the 2002 Winter Games.
The owners, operators and corporate executives gathered for Tuesday's lunchtime announcement at the McDonald's in Taylorsville on Redwood Road didn't care. They cheered as Romney chewed.
"Nothing makes me more pleased," the Salt Lake Organizing Committee president said as he passed around burgers and fries to a group of schoolchildren who had been paying more attention to Ronald McDonald's clowning.
The sponsorship means more to SLOC than a free lunch for the boss, of course. McDonald's is spending more than $55 million to become a worldwide sponsor of both the 2002 Winter Games and the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece.
SLOC's share is worth about $10 million. McDonald's will have not one but two outlets in the athletes village at the University of Utah. One will be in the athletes cafeteria and the other will be set up for visiting friends and family.
Cammi Granato, who led the U.S. women's ice hockey team to a gold medal at the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, said the food is a special treat for Olympic athletes. Especially since they don't have to pay for it.
"That was pretty cool for us. We couldn't believe you got free McDonald's," Granato said, advising the schoolchildren in the audience that alone should be enough to motivate them toward Olympic careers.
Granato, who plans to compete in the 2002 Games, said corporate support means everything to athletes. "All my life I wanted to know what it was like to be a champion," she said. Winning the first-ever gold medal in women's ice hockey made her one.
Lindsay Connelly, 16, of Centerville, hopes to follow in Granato's footsteps. She is currently the fourth-ranked women's bobsledder in the United States and is one of just 10 teenagers nationwide selected to participate in McDonald's "Olympic Achiever" program.
The program is serving as the youth camp at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. SLOC is trying to cancel the youth camp planned for the 2002 Games to save money and staff time.
"That's really sad," Connelly said. She expects the camp will bring her closer to her idols, the athletes who compete for their countries at the Olympics. "I want to be like them," she said.
McDonald's, the first global sponsor of the traditional camp for young people from each of the nations that send athletes to a Games, may offer similar support in Salt Lake City as part of its sponsorship.
McDonald's President Alan Feldman said the company is spending millions of dollars to spiff up restaurants nationwide. Salt Lake-area McDonald's, he said, will get special attention because of the upcoming Games.
"Salt Lake City is taking kind of a front-and-center role," Feldman said. Unlike other worldwide sponsors, McDonald's chose to announce its support for the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
McDonald's is the eighth worldwide sponsor signed by the International Olympic Committee, joining Coca-Cola, Time and Sports Illustrated magazines, John Hancock insurance, VISA, Kodak, Xerox and the Sema Group, a European computer company.
Talks are under way with the remaining worldwide sponsors, whose deals expire after the 2000 Games in Sydney. They are United Parcel Service, Panasonic and Samsung. All three are likely to re-up, according to IOC Vice President Dick Pound of Canada.
Pound said there could even be one more worldwide sponsor for the 2002 Games, but he declined to provide further details. Sponsors are given exclusive rights in specific product categories. McDonald's, for example, is the official restaurant of the Olympics.
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