It's a small town, but it has everything its people could need or want: a peaceful haven for rest plus a bustling commons where anyone can rub shoulders with the fittest people on the planet, dance with a supersized coyote and have coffee with Wayne Gretzky and Lech Walesa.
The Olympic Village, née Fort Douglas at the University of Utah, is at an altitude of about 4,700 feet, technically. But the air up there is rarefied in a way that wouldn't show up on an altimeter.
Inhabitants walk around smiling as though they've been breathing a Winter Games happy gas. Faces seen shining on television last night are seen this afternoon at the village store, buying armloads of postcards.
"The Australian speedskater with the eyebrow piercing (gold medalist Steven Bradbury) . . . and the guy with the small beard (Apolo Anton Ohno), and the little girl from Russia (pairs figure skating champion Elena Berezhnaya) have been in here," said Diana Martinez, who works in the chips-and-candy section of the store. "Michelle came in, I heard, but I didn't get to see her." That's Michelle Kwan, for those who haven't yet switched to calling the U.S. figure skater by just the one name.
Aside from shopping, the village has offered lots of other entertainment, from first-run movies to concerts by the Hawaiian reggae band Naleo Mele.
On Saturday, another popular activity was athlete-watching.
What's life like at the Olympic Village for a newly crowned American champion like bronze-medal figure skater Tim Goebel?
"It's something you have to experience. It's nothing tangible," said Goebel, 21. "I've been working for Olympic Aid, trying to help them raise some money," and next week "I have to go home and train for the worlds" — the world figure skating championships to be held in Nagano, Japan, in mid-March.
Athlete-watching often leads to another popular village activity — taking pictures with athletes.
"Hey, can you go get your medal so we can get a picture of you with it?" asks a village volunteer. "Can I just shake your hand? You did such a great job," says a visitor. Another says only, "Oh, my gosh. That's him."
It's enough to send a guy back to his dorm room. But the athletes don't seem to mind all the pestering.
"Everybody thinks I'm great here," joked Mary Griglak, an 18-year-old member of the U.S. short-track team. Originally from Cleveland, she's been to Salt Lake City before for other speedskating competitions, but she didn't know what she was in for during the Games.
"I'd say this exceeded my expectations," Griglak said. During these Games, Griglak has watched as her sport is transformed in the public's eye. "I'm coming from nobody knowing what short track is to people saying, 'Oh, I love that! I want to get my kids into it.' "
For those aspiring to future Olympics, Griglak quotes the athletes' motto: "It's not every four years; it's every day."
While Griglak visited the post office to stamp a slew of postcards with the official Olympic Village postmark, National Guardsmen and firefighters were massing outside, along with three gyrating animals — Copper, Coal and Powder, the Winter Games' coyote, bear and hare mascots — who were all trying to dance with Assol Slivets, a beaming blond Belorussian freestyle aerialist.
Breathless, Slivets gave the village a rave review. "It's amazing," she said. Slivets, 19, lives in Minsk, Belarus, when not competing. Since the freestyle final on Feb. 18, "we've been everywhere. In the evening at the coffeehouse, there are all kinds of celebrities: Wayne Gretzky, Nelly Furtado."
Inside the village store's clothing section, shopping on Saturday reached a second-to-last-day fever pitch, but Olympians found time for impromptu conversations. Mark Wood of Canada's skeleton team said they're the key to the village's atmosphere.
"Yesterday I was talking to a guy from Kazakhstan whose sport is biathlon. It's so nice being able to turn around and start talking to someone from another country, while you're just standing at the bus stop."
Wood had high praise for Olympic volunteers. "I'm really surprised at how smooth everything is. I jump in a vehicle and end up where I need to be, but I don't know what goes on behind the scenes. The volunteers really make this what it is."
The workers, the athletes, the coaches and the visitors all find the Olympics a heady time, all the more so since village life is at an end. What will Wood do when it's over?
"I'll have a rest," he said.
E-MAIL: durbani@desnews.com