Venue chedule of events
Make no mistake about it. Soldier Hollow is no Snow Harp, the venue for cross country competitions during the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.
Ask just about anybody, and they'll say Soldier Hollow, which will host cross country and biathlon Olympic competitions this February, is better. Much, much better.
"Soldier Hollow is very skiable," says John Aalberg, directr of cross country for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. "You can use a natural rhythm."
Specifically, the Soldier Hollow course is not nearly as steep. "You don't have to be a mountain goat, just a good overall skier," he said.
Nordic fans will also notice the difference. Unlike the heavily forested Snow Harp, the estimated 20,000 visitors a day at Soldier Hollow will actually be able to watch most of the race from start to finish.
In fact, Soldier Hollow is unprecedented among world-class venues in that the terrain is open and less wooded, said Phil Hendricks, lead designer with EDAW, an urban design firm out of Ft. Collins, Colo.
"It is uniquely designed for spectators," he said, noting two-thirds of the course is visible at all times. At most venues throughout the world, competitors spend most of their time obscured by trees.
The course is also designed to maximize the number of times the competitors ski through the stadium.
EDAW worked for a year to design the course, mixing cross country and biathlon courses in a complex maze needed to meet the requirements of both sports. "It was a 100,000-piece jigsaw puzzle," Hendricks said.
"We had to design for 25 different medal events, make sure viewing areas for spectators and TV cameras provided maximum exposure, provide for security and then consider how the site will be used after the Games," he said.
The location of the course presented some unique challenges. The maximum elevation of a cross country-biathlon course, as set by the International Ski Federal, is 5,900 feet. Soldier Hollow bumps close to that maximum at 5,600 feet, but it is very difficult to maintain snow conditions in the Rocky Mountains below the minimum requirements.Deseret News graphicSoldier HollowRequires Adobe Acrobat.
Hence, Soldier Hollow now features snow-making equipment.
The potential snow problems were illustrated in February 2000 when organizers of the U.S. Biathlon Championships had to truck in tons of snow from American Fork Canyon and Mirror Lake Highway in the Uinta Mountains.
If for some reason the current deluge of snow happens to melt, contingency plans are in place to truck in snow for the Olympic competitions. These include eight biathlon events over five days, 12 cross country events over nine days, and three Nordic combined events over three days, combining to make Soldier Hollow the busiest Olympic venue come February.
About $12 million was spent preparing the course for Olympic competitions. The first 5K course was completed about three years ago, and the rest of the 24K course was completed just last year in time to host a World Cup competition.
State officials hope Soldier Hollow will become the crown jewel in the state park system, hosting international competition for years to come and still keeping it open to novice skiers and summer sports.
Eventually, Soldier Hollow will include a new 36-hole golf course; group camping facilities accommodating approximately 200 people, and 25 additional kilometers of cross country trails.
The focus is much more than simply preparing for the Olympics, said State Parks director Courtland Nelson. "It's what the legacy will be after the Olympics."
Most North American competitors and many international athletes have been in Wasatch County for months training for the Winter Games. Several international competitions have already been held, dress-rehearsals of sorts for the big show in two months.
The U.S. Cross Country Nationals "christened and debugged the venue," said Lyle Nelson, Salt Lake Organizing Committee's biathlon program director.
Organizers say it is hard to imagine that three years ago Soldier Hollow was a pasture with sheep and cows.
"We developed something that in our mind was the best possible trail," Aalberg said. He invited trail design experts from Norway and plotted out the routes that conformed to the natural terrain, didn't cross bridges or crisscross each other, and were devoid of rocks and trees.
"We followed the cow paths," he said.
Few trees were removed, Hendricks said, and 3,000 more trees were planted ? something that earned Soldier Hollow an A grade from environmentalists, the only Olympic site to be so recognized.
"This will be a great place to hold the 2002 Olympics," said Spanish cross country skier Johann Muehlegg, who won two recent World Cup events at Soldier Hollow.
Athletes are praising Soldier Hollow for its beauty, as well as its challenging terrain.
"They are not easy trails," noted Ukrainian biathlete Elena Petrova, a Olympic silver medalist in the 1998 Nagano Games. "But it is very beautiful."
The Urkrainian team has been in Utah training on the Soldier Hollow course the past two years, hoping to get an advantage.
Jay Hakkinen with the U.S. Biathlon Team is counting on a home-course advantage come February. "I'm not intimidated by the course," he said. "In fact, I'm kind of excited about it."
E-mail: donna@desnews.com