They are cheering for Austrian friends
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PARK CITY, Utah— Bill and Kelly Johnson have spent much of the 2002 Olympic Games cheering for friends.
When Felix Gottwald took home bronze, they celebrated.
When the Austrian Nordic combined team won bronze, the Johnsons felt they had won too.
When the Austrian team placed fourth in the ski jump K120 final, the Johnsons wished it could have been third, or second, or first.
And they told them so — over dinner.
This Olympic games, 12 Austrian athletes, their coaches, physical therapists and cook are living with the Johnsons, members of the Kimball Ward, Park City Utah Kimball Stake. While hundreds of Church members are hosting the families of Olympic athletes, Brother Johnson knows of only one other family hosting Olympic athletes.
Gerhard Schallert, who handles on-site media for the athletes, said the team's quarters — in the Johnson's spacious basement and guest house — are like nothing they have ever seen before. Not only located at the altitude where the athletes are competing, they are only minutes away from the venues. Brother and Sister Johnson, with their four children, live in the mountains of Park City, adjacent to The Canyons ski resort and the Utah Olympic Park.
Team members come and go as needs arise and in their spare time visit with the family, "absolutely bringing the Olympics to life." The athletes gather around the kitchen table each night. They work out on the basketball court. They send e-mail on the Johnson's computer. They sleep in the children's rooms.
And the athletes are doing it for free.
"They enjoy staying up here, but more important, we enjoy having them here," Brother Johnson said.
He knows having the Olympics close by is a once or maybe twice in-a-lifetime experience.
He missed the 1980 Winter Olympics Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. Then a resident of Washington D.C., he lived only a few hours away. The Olympics, he would later reflect, were practically held in his backyard.
So this Olympics is his second chance. Once again the Games are in his backyard; this time literally. "This is my Olympics," said the former member of the University of Utah ski team. "I am really going to enjoy this one."
Brother Johnson became a national ambassador for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, helping the organization raise money. And with his children he attended numerous venues, except on Sundays. They especially enjoy ski jumping and Nordic combined; that is when they are watching friends and cheering for Austria.
"The saddest day will be when they leave and go home," he said. "We think, 'Wow, this is great.' It couldn't be a better experience."
And, if all goes as planned the Austrian ski team will be back after the Olympics. The athletes have accepted an invitation to stay with the Johnsons again next summer while training in Utah.
"They have enjoyed themselves," Brother Johnson explained. "But what they don't realize is that we have enjoyed ourselves more."
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