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Gold Mettle
Gold Mettle
Three years ago, the 2002 Winter Olympics looked like a downhill skier who had taken a really bad fall, tumbling out of control, in danger of serious injury, and with an uncertain future at best. Members of the International Olympic Committee had accepted cash and gifts from Salt Lake City bidders interested in landing the Games, and to make matters worse, the local organizing committee was in financial and organizational disarray. The scandalous situation made news around the world.
Searching for a savior, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee
(SLOC) snapped up Mitt Romney (MBA '74/JD '75),
who was hired after the SLOC reportedly took just one day to review
some 42 other candidates. Romney, the former CEO of Bain Capital,
immediately cut costs and eliminated perks to reassure potential
sources of funding, both private and public, that their money
would be well spent. As a result, the necessary government and
corporate support was forthcoming, morale among organizers and
volunteers was boosted, and the XIX Winter Olympic Games in February
were a rousing success. Romney's star has
risen accordingly and with it, speculation about his political
future.
At the Games' closing ceremony, Romney told the
assembled athletes, "You Olympians came here representing
78 different countries, but today you are heroes of the entire
world. You may have been here to pursue your own dream, but you
also brought the Olympic spirit to us" (Boston Globe,
February 25, 2002).
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