The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah. These were the first Winter Olympics held in the United States since the 1980 Games in Lake Placid. New York. Needless to say, these were also the first Winter Olympics after the turn of the century. Salt Lake City won the bid to host the 2002 Winter Games ahead of three other cities. These cities were Ostersund, Sweden, Sion in Switzerland and Quebec in Canada. Salt Lake City lost to Nagato, Japan in the 1998 Winter Olympics bid and was also offered to replace Denver, Colorado when it withdrew from the 1976 Winter Olympics ; it was later decided that the Denver Olympics would be held in Innsbruck, Austria. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In the two weeks that these Winter Olympics have been going on, no major political events have occurred other than the death of Jonas Sivimbi. Although a military leader, he was also a political leader and personality in Angola. He founded the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which is still a major political party in Angola today. Speaking of major military conflicts, the Second Congo War was coming to an end. Horrific war, known as the "African World War I", it began in 1998 and officially ended in 2003. However, distress and violence continued after the war ended. “The conflict in Congo is a complex web of interconnected needs, interests and grievances that exist not only domestically within Congo, but also externally in neighboring states, such as Rwanda and Uganda, which have historically contributed to influencing Congolese politics. » (Prendergast) It was a war born out of years of hostility. The violence that followed in the Republic of Congo between many of these African states and regions can be seen as having a Cold War influence. “Congo has fallen into a constitutional and institutional crisis; the country became a pawn on the Cold War chessboard. (Berwoutz) The events of the Cold War had a direct impact on the African continent. These political and military conflicts did not directly influence the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake. This is primarily due to the lack of direct US influence in the Congo distress and the close proximity between the two locations. Although some countries did not boycott the Salt Lake Winter Games, many were against holding the games there when a scandal arose. It was believed that the Olympics were awarded to the Utah city due to bribes. Members of the International Olympic Committee have been accused of accepting bribes from the Salt Lake organizing committee, which is responsible for the bidding process for the Olympic Games to be held there. These allegations ultimately cost many members of the Olympic Committee their jobs. And not only did they take this step, but they also adopted new rules for the bidding process. Although there was no direct terrorist activity during the games, security was at maximum and everyone seemed to be walking around with their heads turned, as only five months had passed since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The games began with President George W. Bush paying tribute to the lives lost on that fateful day. Some very famous people participated in these Olympics and ended up being associated with some of the most famous athletes of the year2002. One of them was Sarah Hughes. Sarah Hughes was a figure skater from Great Neck, New York. Through her success in skating and in school, Sarah had a very successful career on and off the ice before the Olympics. Highly decorated although she never won a gold medal at any World Championship or Grand Prix. There was a magnifying glass on her especially during these games because everyone knew she was a true champion and this was her time to shine. She then won the gold medal that year in Salt Lake. A parade was held for her in her hometown and even then Senator Hillary Clinton declared that day Sarah Hughes Day. She became the first American Olympic gold medalist before winning a U.S. or world title. Another famous person was Canadian national Jarome Iginla. Jarome Iginla was a hockey player who played for the Calgary Flames at the time. He was by far their best player as he recorded the most points of any player for four seasons. He was one of their few shining stars during their seven-year playoff absence. People watched him because of his high status in the NHL and he lived up to that status. He opened the matches with a hat-trick against Norway and eventually became the tournament's top scorer. He helped Canada win hockey gold by scoring two goals against the United States in the gold medal game and gave Canada its first hockey gold medal in 50 years. Norway, Germany and hosts the United States all lead the medal standings in that order. Norway has the most gold medals with 13 and the United States has the most medals total with 36. Class, race, and ethnicity have always played a role in every aspect of American life . The United States is a melting pot of all kinds of people, which leads to many of these themes. The most important factor at play during the games was gender. The role gender played in games didn't really come to light until later studies of the 2002 games. This is particularly evident in television reports. "NBC prime-time coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics found that men received almost twice as much coverage as women, a wider gap in gender coverage than during of the previous five Olympic Games." (Feeney) The men's events clearly received more attention than the women's events. Even in less popular sports, like luge, where women's luge wasn't even covered. Even though this was underlying the era of the games, it is still a significant factor that played into the overall perception of Salt Lake 2002. 2002 Salt Lake was an absolute success in terms of economy and culture. “Official state estimates of economic impact showed that the Salt Lake Olympics generated $100 million in profits, $4.8 billion in sales, 35,000 years of employment and 1.5 billion dollars in revenue for Utah workers in 2002." (Lee) These numbers don't lie. All this shows is that Salt Lake put in all the time and renovations to prepare for the 2002 games was worth it. Hotel room rents increased by 25% and skier attendance by 42%. Needless to say, the 2002 Olympics put Utah and the city of Salt Lake on the map. For this reason, these Olympics did not attract much criticism, as Utah is still reaping the benefits of Salt Lake 2002. The propaganda in favor of these Olympics was a huge factor in terms of.