Athletes from around the world come to Park City
For three weeks Utah welcomed the world, and the world came on in. Park City hosted its fair share of the visitors and events.
During the Olympics, Park City was transformed from a resort town to one of the centers of Olympic activity.
“Park City was my favorite area of the Olympics. It was the non-Utah part of the Olympics, as much as you could have that,” said Jeremey Parkhurst, a Boulder, Colo. resident.
Park City’s Main Street was closed to traffic to facilitate the pedestrians, street performances and the crowds that formed around famous personalities and athletes visiting the area.
Large lines of customers formed outside of stores that sold official Olympic merchandise. The line to enter the Roots store selling the Olympic berets extended several hundred yards down Main Street.
When one man at the end of the line was asked why he was in line he said, “I don’t know, I just figured I had better get in line now.”
With so many people in one place, parking and transportation presented their own problems.
“Parking, which already is terrible there, was impossible. The really only viable solution was to use the park and rides,” Parkhurst said.
Free park and ride lots were provided miles outside of Park City near freeway off-ramps.
If motorists wanted to park inside the city limits, they were charged anywhere from $10 to $25. Even many of these lots were located miles away from the events themselves, and required use of the shuttle buses to get to the events. Most businesses refused parking to those that were not patrons.
With these factors, one might wonder if it was even worth it to go to the Olympics.
“The Olympics were amazing and I’m glad I went. People were very nice, it was a great atmosphere; of course, at $5 a beer, people better be nice. It’s not every day that you’re in a bar and people are walking by with Olympic medals around their necks,” Parkhurst said.
(Scott Davis )
(Scott Davis )
(Scott Davis )