"Amber." "Wildfire." "Forest." "Mountain shadow."
Nope, those aren't men's colognes — they're the names of the colors selected by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the uniforms that staff and volunteers will wear at the 2002 Winter Games.
Better known as yellow, red, green or blue.
The uniforms were made public Monday by SLOC, which released a photograph of football great Steve Young and his wife, Barbara, dressed in the volunteer gear. Young is the chairman of the organizing committee's effort to recruit some 20,000 volunteers.
A fashion show was scheduled late Monday morning at the Gallivan Center with other celebrity athletes, including Olympic skier Nikki Stone, former Jazz basketball player Thurl Bailey and Paralympian Chris Waddell.
The cold-weather gear manufactured by Olympic sponsor Marker Ltd. includes a jacket, fleece vest, black shell pants, black micro-fleece turtleneck, fleece cuffed hat and headband, leather gloves and a bag designed to be worn across the chest.
The color of the jacket will vary according to the job assignment. Ticket-takers and other event services staff will wear yellow; medical services staff, red; technical officials, green; and SLOC staff, blue.
The jacket, which will be decorated front and back with SLOC's snowflake-style logo, is intended to help Games-goers locate the type of volunteer they need quickly. It's also supposed to carry out what organizers call an "American West" theme.
That's most apparent in the black bag, which is described as similar to a pack that a Pony Express courier might have worn. Except that, like all of the gear, it's made of the most up-to-date, technical materials. And it bears the SLOC logo.
Marker Ltd. was the first sponsor for the 2002 Games signed after the scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's bid surfaced in late 1998. The deal with the Utah sportswear manufacturer is believed to be worth at least $20 million to SLOC.
The uniforms were created by SLOC's creative services and human resources departments.
While organizers won't be able to pay volunteers, they will let them keep their uniforms. More than 45,000 people have already registered as volunteers for the Olympics and the Paralympics for disabled athletes in March 2002.
Volunteers must be at least 18 years old by Games time and will have to be available to work daily shifts of eight to 10 hours during all of the 17 days of the Olympics or the 10 days of the Paralympics, including weekends.
General training for volunteers is set to begin soon, with job-specific training scheduled to start in October. An application form and other information is available at SLOC's Web site, www.saltlake2002.com.
E-MAIL: lisa@desnews.com