The Peaks Ice Arena, the only athletic venue of the 2002 Winter Games in Utah County, is attracting lots of local attention as the Games draw nearer.

The Peaks will host ice hockey events during the Games, with at least one match, and usually two matches, scheduled daily from Feb. 9-21.

"I anticipate big crowds every day," said Ross Howden, a recent BYU graduate who is the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's operations manager for the Peaks.

"It's a really intimate setting. I would venture to guess that this will be the loudest venue at the Games, period," Howden said.

Howden said having a venue in Provo attracts a lot of world attention toward Utah County and BYU, as opposed to the majority of other Olympic venues, which focus attention on the Salt Lake City area.

"(The Peaks) is special because it's a community facility," Howden said. "The Provo community is very supportive. There's kind of a friendly vibe that exists here."

Approximately 1,500 paid staff, contractors and volunteers will be working at the Peaks in varying shifts during the Olympics, Howden said.

Many of the Peaks' Olympics staff is drawn from BYU students and staff and Utah County residents. This includes both volunteers and paid workers on administrative, medical and service levels.

One of those volunteers is Gaye Merrill, a BYU assistant athletic trainer who will be the Peaks' medical supervisor during the Games.

"We have quite a few people from BYU working there in a medical capacity," Merrill said. Those volunteers include four athletic trainers and two team physicians.

Merrill said she recruited assistants from both BYU faculty and the local area, for the sake of convenience. However, she said she would be happy for the opportunity to interact with visiting medical staff, and to learn more about winter sports medicine.

"It's just such a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Merrill said. "It's a great opportunity to meet others in the medical profession."

Construction on the Peaks Ice Arena was completed in October 1999. The facility is 110,000 square feet, and includes an international-size ice rink and bleacher seating.

The venue was the first double-rink facility in the state of Utah, said Max Rabner, president of the Peaks Management Corporation.

"The size of the facility and the newness of it made it appropriate for this type of event," Rabner said.

To make the Peaks Olympics-ready, a spectator capacity of 8,500 will be required.

As a result, the main bleachers are currently undergoing construction while additional seating is added.

Other facility changes include adding additional locker-room space for the teams, and bringing in additional light fixtures to conform to international broadcasting standards. All these construction projects are currently underway.

In addition, the arena will be closed to the public beginning in January 2002, to make final Olympics preparations.

Despite these inconveniences, however, Rabner said the Olympics experience will make the sacrifices worthwhile.

"It's a small price for us to pay for the Olympics to be here," Rabner said. "This is a one-time issue. The benefit is that we now have a beautiful indoor ice arena."
Copyright Brigham Young University 8 Dec 2001