Athletes arrive at Olympic Village

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Athletes started checking into the Olympic Village on Tuesday, surrounded by three rings of armed security and 8-foot-tall chain link fences.

"It's exceedingly safe. Security, I would say, is tight," said Roberto Fabricini, the leader for Italy's 120-member Olympic team.

As many as 300 athletes were expected to check in by Tuesday night, said Simon Toulson, the village representative for the International Olympic Committee.

The village will be occupied by 3,900 athletes, coaches and team officials, who will have a special guest: IOC president Jacques Rogge, who will skip the luxury of the IOC headquarters hotel for a dormitory bed.

Rogge was due to arrive in Salt Lake City on late Tuesday.

Salt Lake banker Spencer Eccles, the village mayor, cut a ribbon Tuesday and promptly designated his daughter, Lisa, deputy mayor for the day. Eccles and his deputies will welcome teams from 80 nations with a traditional Olympic ceremony, playing their anthems and raising their flags.

The welcome party also will stage an American Indian dance for each delegation's arrival and hand out gifts of handmade quilts.

Puerto Rico's team was among the first to arrive Tuesday and found the accommodations excellent, Toulson said.

The Olympic Village at the University of Utah has a movie theater, post office, coffee shops, Internet cafes, a bank and a general store, even a beauty salon and massage salon. Internet cafes were big hits at the Olympic Villages at Sydney and Nagano.

It also has a McDonald's and restaurants for finer fare. "That is very important," said Fabricini, who arrived in advance of the Italian athletes.

Fabricini said Calgary had the best Olympic Village, for the 1988 Winter Games -- a standard he's using to measure this village. "We are completely satisfied at the moment," he said.

Security was so tight Fabricini had his vehicle checked, his bags checked, his credentials checked, even his body checked. "But it's very quick, very efficient," he said.

That wasn't the case Tuesday outside the Olympic media center, where reporters stood in slow lines to pass through a white tent sheltering metal detectors manned by Olympic volunteers and the National Guard. Volunteers said there wasn't enough of them to process hurried reporters.

Inside the media center, Ed Eynon, human resources director for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, briefed reporters on the work of 19,500 Olympic and 4,000 Paralympic volunteers.

 

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