By Tim Thompson

Staff Writer

In Salt Lake City last Friday, the opening ceremonies -- whose razzle-dazzle pyrotechnic bonanza tallied up at about 37 million dollars -- of the 19th Winter Olympiad branded these international games with a decidedly national texture. That this Olympiad is the first major international sporting event since the Sept. 11 tragedy is obvious, and not merely because the opening ceremonies featured the emotionally charged appearance of a tattered flag salvaged from ``ground zero'' in New York City. The atmosphere surrounding the games is one of heightened patriotism among U.S. attendees--a tone bolstered by the Alcatraz-level security precautions taken to insure that the games run smoothly. In addition to U.S. athletes, several thousand U.S. military personnel are present at the games--at a time, moreover, when U.S. national identity seems to be craving both heroes and ``heroic'' measures.

The security preparations leading up to the games involved enormous expenditures -- more than $300 million dollars all told, compared to the $179.2 million spent on security the last time the United States hosted the Winter Olympics -- in 1980 in Lake Placid, New York. This costly and Herculean task of making good on Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge's prediction that during the games Salt Lake City would be ``one of the most secure places in the world,'' has brought a virtual army down on the 110-by-35 miles of Olympic territory around Salt Lake City. Around 10,000 security personnel are present, including more U.S. military troops (around 5,600) than are serving in operations in Afghanistan.

Salt Lake City's airspace has been transformed into a "no-fly" zone patrolled by F-16 fighter jets. Army and Marine troops have installed ground-based radars in nearby foothills of the Wasatch Mountains to detect any low-flying aircraft or any suspicious activity through the hilly terrain. Most concerns, however, focus not on preventing large-scale attacks, but on preventing isolated incidents. Much of the work done by security personnel will involve search-ing attendees for banned items -- aerosol cans, food and drinks, as well as guns and knives.

The opening ceremonies themselves were full of displays of patriotic fervor. Last to enter Rice-Eccles Stadium among the 77 nations represented at the games was the U.S. team, led by flag-bearer and short-track speed skater Amy Peterson. The stadium crowd greeted them with dramatic applause. Many members from teams representing the 76 other nations competing in the games also waved U.S. flags during their entrance into the stadium, in addition to their own national flags.

The ceremonies featured performances by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, bringing to mind the city's conservative, Mormon religious influence, which has spoken out for ``traditional family values'' in the face of condom distribution among athletes. They also featured a Native American ceremony, a hoedown'' complete with an attempt at audience participation in singing ``She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain'' and a musical number by the country western group the Dixie Chicks.

Though the Olympics' worldwide audience consists of 3.5 billion viewers from 160 nations -- with more than 50 languages represented -- the atmosphere at the opening ceremonies was defined by the presence of the World Trade Center flag, carried ahead of the athlete delegations by eight U.S. athletes and a group of firefighters and police officers from the New York City area. President Bush, who declared the games officially open, gave a pep-talk to U.S. athletes just before the ceremonies, stating, as quoted by a CNN report, ``This flag serves [as] a symbol of this nation's strength, of our resolve, of our determination to fight for freedom.''

During the actual competitions themselves, the presence of U.S. patriotism has been especially marked as well. At the snowboarding event on Tuesday, the top three slots of which were swept by U.S. athletes, The New York Times reported, that chants of ``U.S.A, U.S.A., U.S.A.'' from the 30,000-member audience were deafening. Snowboarder Ross Powers, who took the gold in this most stereotypically ``American'' of sports (with its MTV-style self-presentation), specifically referred tothe events of Sept. 11 and to how his medal-winning gave him a sense of patriotic satisfaction in light of those events.

John Zimmerman and Kyoko Ina, who finished fifth in the controversial pairs figure skating competition, also benefited from a patriotic crowd that waved banners and U.S. flags. The New York Times quoted Zimmerman as saying, ``I absolutely fed off that crowd. It was a big hand that just pushed us along and it didn't stop.''

The pro-U.S. exuberance of the Salt Lake City crowds seems to be paying off in the overall medal count as well. As of Tuesday, the United States leads the medal pack with nine total medals, followed by Austria with seven and Germany and Norway with six. The United States currently ties Norway with three gold medals apiece.