The challenges faced by the SLOC hardly rate in comparison to other Games. But with the exception of the Munich Summer Games in 1972—when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed by a Palestinian paramilitary group—no Olympiad is so inextricably linked to bad news. Punch “Olympic scandal” into Google and the second hit (after the obligatory Wikipedia register of every Olympic indignity) is about the 2002 Games. Search “2002 Winter Olympics” and the second reference is about the scandal.

Alas, Anderson says, Salt Lake’s association with scandal “may be continually reinforced by the fact that people are still touting Romney’s role in turning things around.”

That’s the torch that Utahns will always bear.

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