Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Olympic organizers announce a change of heart, saying the tattered flag will make a solemn entrance.
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 7, 2002
SALT LAKE CITY -- A tattered American flag recovered from the World Trade Center rubble will be carried at the Winter Olympics' Opening Ceremony after all.
In a swift change of heart, Olympic organizers announced Wednesday that the damaged flag from ground zero would be carried at Friday night's ceremony in a "solemn, dignified entrance," the International Olympic Committee said.
Barring bad weather, the delicate banner will then be raised beside the Olympic flame at Rice-Eccles Stadium while The Star-Spangled Banner is played.
The ground zero flag will not be part of the main parade of athletes during the opening ceremony and instead will be carried in after all teams have entered the stadium. It won't fly throughout the 17-day sporting event because of its delicate condition.
Still, it will be the official U.S. flag of the Winter Games, at the center of an event with an estimated 3-billion people watching worldwide.
"We had a great deal of discussion as to how to honor the flag as a symbol of the heroes of Sept. 11," said Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, who criticized the IOC's original decision. "This is a way to honor the flag and honor the Olympians as a world event."
IOC director general Francois Carrard agreed.
"This is a unique situation," he said. "This is Sept. 11, hitting the world, but America first."
The IOC originally said American athletes would not be allowed to carry the flag, but that it could be raised as the official U.S. flag at the opening ceremony. The IOC said the plan proposed by the U.S. Olympic Committee violated rules barring political acts during the ceremony.
The decision brought quick criticism. The topic was on talk shows nationwide.
Romney even issued a statement that he "respectfully disagreed" with the IOC's decision.
That's when the IOC relented.
"There is always a question, what is the best way?" said Bob Ctvrtlik, a former Olympic volleyball player from the United States and now an IOC member. "I think the U.S. athletes will be very satisfied."
The athletes who will carry the flag will be picked after discussions with Port Authority police officers who are bringing the flag to Salt Lake City, Romney said. The flag was due to arrive Wednesday night.
"In any event, this is going to be a powerful event and a great spectacle," said Mike Moran, USOC spokesman. "We still have some concern about whether the flag is in good enough condition to raise on the flagpole. Weather could play in that decision. We'll have a spare flag ready just in case the ground zero flag isn't in good enough shape to raise."
The announcement of the new plan, made by the IOC's Carrard, underscored the emotion attached to the flag and the difficulties of managing a sports event that also is one of the world's largest political stages.
The compromise was reached just before midnight, after a two-hour meeting of IOC, USOC and SLOC officials and their advisers.
"The ground zero flag will enter solemnly during the opening ceremony," Carrard said. "It will be carried by an honor guard of American athletes and other heroes, policemen, firemen. This will be a solemn, dignified entrance."
The 12- by 8-foot flag already has withstood a lot.
It was designed specifically for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey so that it could be hoisted in the plaza that contained six of the seven World Trade Center buildings, including the twin towers.
"We're not sure exactly when it was made, but it was designed to withstand high winds -- with a metal edge that ran around the perimeter -- because the winds can whip up pretty nicely in that area," said Pasquale DiFulco, a Port Authority spokesman. "Amazingly the flag continued to fly even after the twin towers first fell, but then after other buildings started to catch fire it came down."
The flag was found buried in the rubble by a National Guard colonel three days after the terrorist attacks. The flag was in tatters, its 50 white stars threadbare.
Rescuers turned it over for a ceremonial destruction.
But then Curt Kellinger, a 17-year veteran with the Port Authority Police Department, got wind of it. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owned the trade center.
The New Jersey officer had been on duty Sept. 11 and had helped several people to safety before barely escaping with his life from 2 World Trade Center just moments before it collapsed.
The 1,300-member Port Authority police force lost 37 officers -- and Kellinger wanted the flag saved in their honor.
Today the flag, which has been repaired but is obviously still damaged, has become a symbol of American pluck that has been flown at last year's World Series, at the New York City Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day parades, and at Sunday's Super Bowl in New Orleans.
A different flag recovered from the trade center was displayed at Saturday's Gasparilla parade in Tampa.
-- Information from the Associated Press, Cox News Service and Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.