Olympic dreams, Olympic gold: next month, when the Winter Games open in Salt Lake City, top athletes will vie for Olympic gold. But their quest for glory began years ago. (USA).

Olympic dreams are gathering like the snow along Utah's Wasatch (WAW-sach) Mountains. Figure skater Sarah Hughes imagines herself leaping and landing in a spray of ice. Snowboarder Chris Klug visualizes himself carving the slopes. Bobsledders Jean Racine and Jennifer Davidson hear whoops and cheers, proving that they are, in their words, "the fastest chicks on ice." And Apolo Anton Ohno sees himself stepping onto the podium after winning his speed-skating events.

These are just 5 of the more than 2,600 athletes who will bring their dreams and supreme efforts to Salt Lake City next month. On February 8, the Olympic torch will arrive to light the Olympic flame (see p. 23). Then the 17 days of the 2002 Winter Games will begin, played out beneath the flame's spirit and light.

The event will be a chance for people and nations to gather in harmony after the horrific events of September 11. The Games might also help us put aside the fear and uncertainty that have continued since then.

"Perhaps now more than ever, the world needs events like the Olympic Games," says Utah Governor Mike Leavitt. "The Olympics stand for peace, for courage, for personal bests. Those are values that the world needs to celebrate....The world needs a place to come together to heal itself."

Ancient Traditions, New Sports

The first Olympic Games on record took place in Greece in 776 B.C. They were held every four years until a Roman emperor banned them in A.D. 393.

A French educator, Baron Pierre de Coubertin (koo-ber-TAN), rekindled the idea about a century ago. "The most significant thing in the Olympic Games," he said, "is not to win but to take part. Just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle." The first modern Olympics were held in 1896, and the Winter Games were added in 1924.

Figure skating, speed skating, hockey, downhill skiing, bobsled, and other traditional winter sports are featured. But each generation adds new events to the Olympics.

Recent additions to the Winter Games include women's ice hockey, snowboarding, and the acrobatics of freestyle aerial skiing. This year, new events include two sliding competitions: skeleton and women's bobsled. Skeleton is headfirst belly sledding--"except faster and scarier," says U.S. ace Jim Shea.

Olympic Hopefuls

For Shea and all Olympic hopefuls, going to Salt Lake City is the climax of years of training, determination, and hard work. Bobsled driver Jean Racine, for example, started out at age 13, shooting down icy chutes on the huge (a sled with runners). Now 22, Racine and brake, Jennifer Davidson, 29, will compete in the first-ever Olympic two-woman bobsled competition.

In figure skating, Sarah Hughes may emerge as an Olympic darling. This 16-year-old from Great Neck, New York, first laced up her blades at age 3. More recently, she wowed crowds with her artistry and athleticism, and last November won a major competition.

Here are other athletes who may share the spotlight next month:

Eric Bergoust: Bergoust got his start leaping off the two-story chimney of his boyhood home. In 1998, he brought a gold medal in freestyle skiing back to the U.S.

Cammi Granato: Born into a family of rink rats, Granato led the U.S. women's hockey team to gold in 1998.

Chris Klug: One of the world's top snowboarders, Klug returns to competition after a July 2000 liver transplant that saved his life.

Hermann Malir: Nicknamed "the Herminator," this Austrian may be the greatest and gutsiest ski racer ever. He broke his right leg in a motorcycle accident last August, but still hopes to race at the Olympics.

Apolo Anton Ohno: Just 19, the Seattle native is poised for battle in four distances of short-track speed skating. (See box, above.)

Jennifer Rodriguez: A long-track speed skater, Rodriguez is thought to be the first U.S. athlete of Hispanic descent to compete in the Winter Games.

Irina Slutskaya: This Russian skater and American Michelle Kwan are the medal favorites in women's figure skating.

Beefing Up Security

The athletes are extraordinary, the competition intense. But even the Olympic Games remain vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Olympic officials worry that this high-profile international event will make Salt Lake City vulnerable to terrorism.

The Winter Games have never been targeted. But the Summer Olympics have suffered two fatal terrorist attacks--in Germany in 1972, when 11 Israeli athletes were killed, and again in 1996, when a bomb at the Atlanta Games killed one.

Mitt Romney, Salt Lake City Olympic Committee chairman, is confident that security will be tight enough to protect these Games.

"The experience of athletes and spectators must first and foremost be a safe one," Romney says. To that end, more than 10,000 police officers, National Guard troops, and other security personnel will be on hand. More than $300 million will be spent to prevent any attacks.

Despite security concerns, few athletes have expressed second thoughts about competing in the Games. Fear, it seems, does not stand a chance in the face of Olympic dreams.

Web: For more on the Winter Games, go to http://www.usatoday.com/olympics/ol.htm

RELATED ARTICLE: Ohno Spells Oh No for Competition

Four years ago, Apolo Anton Ohno feared his speed-skating career might be over. At 15, he missed making the 1998 U.S. Olympic team. He was not sure if he had it in him to hold on to his dreams another four years. "But I stepped back and realized I loved being on the ice," Ohno told JS. "And I came at it again with 110 percent."

Next month, Ohno's competitors will wish he had abandoned his dream. He is the man to beat on the short-track ice. Last year, he won 15 World Cup gold medals and, the overall championship. In Salt Lake City, he has a shot at medaling in four short-track speed-skating events: the 500-, 1,000-, and 1,500-meter individual events, and the 5,000-meter relay.

But Ohno knows that there is no sure thing in short-track speed skating. Pairs of skaters tear around a tight 111-meter oval at up to 30 miles per hour. The action is intense and unpredictable. 'It's like NASCAR," Ohno says. "It's fast, lots of passing. And then a skater will lose an edge or get bumped and go down. It's real exciting, very dynamic."

Ohno attributes his success to desire, dedication, and the sacrifices he has made. "I started sacrificing when I was 14," he says. He left Seattle for a training center on the East Coast. "I lost contact with my friends for the sake of my training. If you want to compete at the world-class level, you have to give up something. But once somebody gets to that level, then they think it's worth it."

Did You Know?

* What country holds the record for winning the most medals at the Winter Olympic Games? (Norway, with 239 medals)

* Both the Summer and Winter Games used to be held in the same year. When did that change? (After 1992. The Summer Games are held every leap year; the Winter Games two years later.)

* What three continents have never hosted the Olympic Games? (Africa, South America, and Antarctica)

* What do the five Olympic rings represent? (Pierre de Coubertin presented the Olympic flag with the five rings at the 1920 Games. Some think the rings represent the five populated continents (counting the Americas as one). But Coubertin never said that.