Three days a week, instructors conduct speed-skating classes for local kids. Do so only if you don't plan to use your legs for the next couple of days. My muscles were more sore after spending an hour learning how to stay in a crouch than after three subsequent days of skiing. More Walter Mitty moments are available at nearby ski resorts. In 2002, the downhill will be held at Snowbasin, a sleepy resort about an hour's drive northeast of Salt Lake City.
Olympic runs are more accessible at Deer Valley, on the outskirts of Park City.
At the Park City ski resort that abuts the town, the snowboarding and giant slalom courses aren't open to the public. But there's no charge for watching the regular training runs and competitions, which can also be seen by skiers on neighboring slopes. But that may be a bargain compared with what will happen once the Olympics arrive in earnest. Its glory days were 18 years ago, but visitors to Lake Placid, N.Y., may have a better chance at an Olympic experience than they would in Utah. Bobsled runs at the 1980 Olympic site, about 8 miles outside the town, are available every day but Tuesday, compared with just four weekly runnings at the Utah park.