Utahns play vital role in record medal haul

Utahns play vital role in record medal haul
By Michael C. Lewis

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 02/28/2010 07:35:08 AM MST
(The Associated Press)«12345»Vancouver, British Columbia »


It's fitting that four-time Olympian Bill Demong will carry the flag for the U.S. Olympic Team at the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Games tonight.

The first American gold medalist in Nordic combined lives and trains in Park City, and athletes like him from Utah have made a huge contribution to the most successful Winter Games in U.S. Olympic history.

"I have seen a significant change over the four Olympics that I've been to," Demong said. At the 1998 Nagano Games in Japan, "we felt like we were a small country at the Olympic Games. As a whole team, we felt like one of the outsiders at the Winter Olympics. Now, we're here to win."

And win, they did.

The Americans have won 36 medals -- tying the most ever, by any nation -- with the certainty of one more today, when the men's hockey team plays Canada in the much-anticipated gold-medal game. That assures they will win the overall medal count for the first time since the 1932 Lake Placid Games; even when they won 34 medals at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, the Germans topped the table with 36.

Sixteen of those medals came from athletes who live and train in Utah -- from downhill skier Lindsey Vonn and short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno to aerialist Jeret "Speedy" Peterson and history-making bobsled driver Steve Holcomb.

"We're probably the best prepared team," said Mike Plant, the chef de mission for the U.S. team. "You combine that with the passion and the commitment and the dedication" of the athletes, and "you come out with a pretty powerful combination. And we've seen some great results."

The highlight for many Utahns surely had to be Holcomb's dominating victory in the four-man bobsled on Sunday, snapping a 62-year gold-medal drought for the Americans in one of the most popular sports in the Olympics.

Demong was right there, too, as the first American to win gold

in one of the Nordic sports -- cross country, ski jumping and combined. He and Park City's Brett Camerota also were part of the silver-medal winning relay team.

Vonn and snowboarder Torah Bright of Salt Lake City won the only other gold medals among Utah athletes, though Bright won her halfpipe gold for Australia, meaning the total medal count for athletes from Utah will be 17. In addition to the hockey game, there is one final men's cross country race today, though no Americans are expected to medal.

A part-time Park City resident, the much-hyped Vonn won the downhill and took bronze in the super-G, but crashed out of her other three races and disappointed those who expected her to fare even better.

Meanwhile, Ohno became the winningest winter Olympian in U.S. history, with his silver and two bronzes giving him eight medals in his career. He has lived in South Jordan while training at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. He probably will move soon to New York or Los Angeles to pursue business opportunities.

"Just seeing all the Americans have so much success -- and not just Alpine, but in all the events -- has been really cool," Vonn said. "Sitting at home watching TV in the evening and seeing pretty much every event there's an American on the podium. It's very cool to watch and even though I'm living through the Olympics, I'm also still a spectator and I love to see how much success we're having as a team."

In all, 19 athletes were responsible for the Utah medal haul, though nearly 40 others competed, too.

Some were elated to medal or simply participate, such as moguls skier Shannon Bahrke of Salt Lake City and skeleton slider Noelle Pikus-Pace of Orem. But others were disappointed in not improving on past successes.

Skier Ted Ligety finished no better than fifth in his four alpine races, after winning gold at the 2006 Turin Games. Bobsled driver Shauna Rohbock of Orem had hoped for gold after taking silver four years ago, but finished only sixth on the dangerous track that earned worldwide criticism after the death of a Georgian luger in a training crash the day before the Olympics began.

"It's not the Olympics I've dreamed of for four years," she said.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association based in Park City enjoyed a great showing, though, even if it fizzled a bit at the end.

Its athletes won 21 medals, including eight in the first six Alpine events -- that would rank at least fifth on the medal table -- while Kearns-based U.S. Speedskating managed 10 medals, with a lot of help from Ohno and double-medalist Chad Hedrick, who has lived in Draper but plans a move back to his native Texas.

So now, the focus will shift to the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia, a host nation that will be coming off a disappointing performance in Vancouver. They won a modest 15 medals, pending today's cross-country finale.

The Americans, on the other hand, won't have that problem.

But thanks to the athletes from Utah who made the Vancouver Games such a roaring success, they will have a hard time producing an encore.
mcl@sltrib.com

Past Winter Games gave a boost to Park City & other Winter Destinations

Past Winter Games gave a boost to Park City & other Winter Destinations

Posted on 12:00 AM CST on Sunday, February 21, 2010; Dallas Morning News
Walt Roessing is a freelance writer in California

PARK CITY, Utah – Watching the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games on television can't help but remind Utahans of the positive economic impact such an event can have on a tourism destination.

The February 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games have been responsible for a surge in the state's tourism industry, especially for Park City and Salt Lake City.

Park City, host to one-third of the 2002 Winter Games events, has Utah's greatest concentration of upscale ski resorts with the triad of Deer Valley, the Canyons and Park City Mountain Resort.

"The skier-days of that trio jumped from 1.16 million in the year of the Olympics to a peak of 1.87 million in 2007-08," says Craig McCarthy, of the Park City Chamber/Bureau. For the third consecutive year, he adds, Deer Valley has been named the No. 1 overall resort in North America by the readers of Ski Magazine.

Also, the Canyons, with 3,700 skiable acres, has become Utah's largest resort, and Park City Mountain Resort offers the only ski-in, ski-out access to historic Main Street, McCarthy says.

Since the 2002 Games the three local ski areas have added a combined nine new ski lifts and opened more runs and terrain.

Substantial, too, has been the growth in Park City's tourism infrastructure. It now encompasses about 6,000 lodging rooms plus meeting properties with 3,000 rooms.

New lodging growth continues. On Deer Valley's Flagstaff Mountain, we skied with McCarthy to the doors of the Montage. Slated to open in the winter season of 2010-11, that property will have 174 luxury guest suites, 81 private residences, a spa and two restaurants.


New luxury hotels

My visit included tours of three newly opened luxury hotels: the low-rise Escala Lodge and Dakota Mountain Lodge at the Canyons and the 11-story, slopeside St. Regis Deer Crest hotel at Deer Valley.

At the St. Regis, everything about the architecture – color schemes, lighting fixtures, oversize windows in the public areas – is worthy of a palace. There's an immense lobby, restaurants, library, wine cellar and meeting facilities.

Recent plush lodging newcomers are Sky Lodge and Hotel Park City.

Other local improvements are the Golden Door Spa's debut at the Canyons and a megadollar expansion of the slopeside spa at Deer Valley's Stein Eriksen Lodge.

The legacy of the 2002 Olympics made those projects possible.

Another appealing feature is that the historic mining town (founded 1884) is a blend of old and new. Sixty-four of its buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many sit side by side along century-old Main Street, the center for most of Park City's shops and 100 restaurants.

Here's another Main Street bonus. After a two-year, $8.9 million renovation, the Park City Museum has reopened. The exhibits focus on Park City's history as a silver-mining town, its subsequent transition to a renowned ski resort, and the local people who made it all happen.

J&G Grill, St. Regis Deer Crest Resort

J&G Grill:
The St. Regis spared no expense in building Jean-Georges’ dream restaurant.
By Ted Scheffler, Salt Lake CityWeekly.net

In 1991, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened his first restaurant, JoJo, on New York City’s Upper East Side. Vong followed soon after in 1992, and then Jean-Georges— Vongerichten’s celebrated eponymous eatery—in 1997.

I recall the dates because I left New York City for Utah in ’92. Today, the Alsace-born chef’s name is stamped on restaurants all over the globe, and his 29th restaurant—J&G Grill at the St. Regis Deer Crest Resort in Deer Valley—recently opened with a noticeable bang.

Envious chefs salivate over the gargantuan exhibition kitchen at J&G Grill. “It’s the biggest of all my restaurants,” said Vongerichten, proudly. And indeed, the St. Regis spared no expense in building Jean-Georges’ (everyone calls him by his first name) dream restaurant. It sports a long, communal table that seats 22, a chef’s private table for 10 on the terrace and a spacious main dining room for 75. Adjacent to J&G Grill is a 4,600-bottle wine “vault” and the St. Regis bar.

J&G Grill is contemporary but very warm, with lots of tan, cream and brown throughout—gorgeous. A double-sided wood-burning fireplace separates the kitchen and counter seating from the main dining room, which sports highly polished Venetian plaster, herringbone carpet and stacked gray quartz stone. The floor-to-ceiling windows offer stupendous slopeside views of Deer Valley. Jean-Georges went out of his way to incorporate local materials like the gray quartz into his restaurant.



And Jean-Georges is all about attention to detail. He gave me generous amounts of time during his restaurant’s opening week, and one morning, as he was showing me an auxiliary kitchen that services deck diners, a box of pine cones arrived. “I don’t want flowers from Holland on my tables,” Jean-Georges said as he ripped into one of the boxes. The pine cones serve as table centerpieces at J&G Grill. Jean-Georges was so excited about the arrival of his cones that he went from table to table, where diners were enjoying breakfast, and placed each pine cone personally.

Jean-Georges describes J&G Grill as his “best of” restaurant. He has hand-picked favorite dishes from his diverse restaurants and assembled them on one menu. That’s lucky for us, since the menu spans a culinary universe ranging from the Southeast Asian flavors Jean-Georges has become so famous for, to classic French fare such as J&G Grill’s perfect French onion soup ($11). And the prices, surprisingly, aren’t as steep as at many high-end Park City restaurants. At J&G Grill, you’ll find $10 pizza on the menu, $12 mussels mariniere, a $14 turkey burger and entrees that generally run from about $24 to $36.



Splitting a charcuterie plate (three meats/$16) seemed like a good way to begin dinner. The charcuterie was plentiful, but not especially interesting: bresaola, prosciutto and speck. The speck and bresaola were dry and tasted as though they’d been air-exposed for too long. An appetizer of mussels mariniere was a heaping two-tothree dozen black Maine mussels in a lovely, fragrant broth with grilled pesto bread for dipping. Unfortunately, at least half of the mussels had just barely begun to open. I suspect Jean-Georges would be appalled at the lack of quality control there.

That’s the bad news: two less-than-exceptional dishes among well over a dozen that I tried. As mentioned, the French onion soup at J&G Grill is as good as it gets. A pizza with Fontina cheese and black truffles (real truffles, not truffle oil or essence) is a sinful pleasure, as is a simple presentation of risotto with shaved white Burgundy truffles—one of the most delicious dishes you’ll ever encounter.

Service at J&G Grill is nothing if not attentive. I was commenting to my wife that a menu description of Casco cod “with spices” ($27) didn’t really tell me much. Which spices? Well, a server overheard my observation and rushed over to fill me in on every spice in the dish.

What J&G Grill has in common with every other Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant is a delicate touch in the kitchen. Jean-Georges’ dishes are complex, but not complicated. Lobster tastes like lobster, enhanced by basil-butter sauce and seasonings but not buried in them. Stunningly simple boneless, parmesan-crusted Niman Ranch poulet rouge ($22) with lemon sauce actually tasted like chicken—moist and flavorful, on a bed of lemon-basil-butter artichokes.

With 4,600 bottles of wine to select from, you can, of course, wreck your budget ordering wine at J&G Grill. But it’s not necessary. Wines are offered by the glass, and St. Regis’ director of wine Paul Fried is happy to find something to sip to fit any budget. “It’s easy to buy expensive wine,” Fried said after I asked him for something in the not-so-expensive $40-$50 per bottle range. At the other end of the spectrum, you can also enjoy Tokaji Aszu Essencia, by the glass, for a mere $140 per.

You probably shouldn’t visit J&G Grill expecting to find Jean-Georges manning the stove. With 29 restaurants and another scheduled to open this month, he’s a busy guy. On the other hand, he told me that he loves to ski and that J&G Grill is the only one of his restaurants located at a ski resort. So, if you encounter an immensely creative, uncommonly talented, genuinely nice guy in chef’s whites on the slope, it might just be Jean-Georges.

J&G Grill, St. Regis Deer Crest Resort
2300 Deer Valley Drive East
Park City
435-940-5760