| OLYMPIC HAPPENINGS 2002
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Moab Gearing Up to Host
Olympic Torch Relay on February 4, 2002
by Jeff Richards
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 Next
month, on t he
morning of Monday, Feb. 4, the streets of Moab will be lined
with cheering crowds as the Olympic Torch Relay makes
its way to town. A variety of celebrations are planned for Moab
the weekend of Feb. 2-3, with the main event taking place Monday
morning. Flag-waving crowds, singing school children, and a
pancake breakfast are all included in the celebration plans
for welcoming the torch.
Delicate Arch in nearby Arches National Park is expected to
be the setting when the flame begins its Utah journey at 7 a.m.
that morning. Several runners will carry the torch through selected
areas of the park. Although the park won’t be closed, access
will be restricted. However, most Moab residents will likely
join others around the state in watching that segment on television.
As the torch relay leaves the park, Russell von Koch of Moab
will be one of two BLM employees who will carry the torch aboard
a mountain bike and transport it from the park and across the
Colorado River bridge and into the town of Moab, where it will
be carried along Main Street by several runners, each for about
a fifth of a mile.
 Besides
von Koch, at least a dozen other Moab residents will be torchbearers
in the relay, although some of them may be carrying the torch
elsewhere that day. They are: Arielle Beck, a 1997 graduate
of Grand County High who now plays basketball for Upper Iowa
University; Sena Flanders, the editor of Moab’s Times Independent
newspaper; Steve Frederick, a waiter at the Sunset Grill; Sarah
Henderson, a special education teacher at Red Rock Elementary
School; Lisa Hendy, who referees youth sports and is active
in civic and church activities; Ernie Lisonbee, a former firefighter
who now works as a sanitation worker; Julie Mueller, the former
executive director of the Moab Area Chamber of Commerce; Shannon
Nobis-Scherer, a former Olympic Team member who finished 10th
in the women’s super-G competition at the 1994 Olympics
in Lillehammer; Christy Parry, a technical writer at Technica
Pacifica; Ryan Stucki, a 17-year-old senior at GCHS who competes
in cross country and track; Jim Walker, a retired schoolteacher;
and Bill Zanotti, a forester with Utah Division of Forestry,
Fire and State Lands. In addition, Moab City has chosen two
of its own city employees — Marcy Till and David Olsen
— to represent the city as torchbearers in the relay.
Former Moab resident Mark Walker now works for the Salt Lake
Organizing Committee and has been with the torch since the beginning
of the relay. The Olympic flame, which was lit at a ceremony
Nov. 19 in Greece, began its two-month journey through the United
States in Atlanta on Dec. 4. Key stops last month included a
stay in both Washington D.C. and New York City, where torchbearers
included numerous people who were wounded or who lost loved
ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Pres. George W. Bush
lit the torch off the cauldron in Washington, and NYC Mayor
Rudy Guiliani performed a similar role at a special ceremony
in New York a few days later.
An entourage of support vehicles (supplied by relay co-sponsor
Chevrolet) is accompanying the flame as it winds its way on
a serpentine journey through 46 of the 50 states before winding
up at the Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium in Salt Lake City on Feb.
8 for the OpeningCeremonies of the XIX Olympic Winter Games.
 The
torch route winds all over the Western states before finally
entering Utah from Grand Junction, Colo. on Feb. 3, with Moab
kicking off the “homestretch” of the relay run the
following morning. After making it down Moab’s Main Street,
the torch is expected to be taken via helicopter later that
morning to Monument Valley. From there, the torch will make
stops on the ground in both Bryce and Zion National Parks before
ending the day in St. George. Then, in the days that follow,
it will travel up Interstate 15 to the northern end of the state
(Logan), and eventually come back to Salt Lake via Park City
and Parley’s Canyon.
The Olympic Games begin with the opening ceremonies on Feb.
8 and end with the closing ceremonies on Feb. 24. |
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