This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Mitt Romney is spending some time in Utah fund raising for his presidential campaign, and I've got a reoccurring headache, one that gets tweaked every time Romney talks about his personal history in our state.
My headache is because he is still touting himself as the savior of the 2002 Winter Olympics, saying he "salvaged the 2002 Winter Olympic Games from certain disaster," as his website puts it.
Funny, that's not how I remember it.
As a member of the executive committee of the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors leading up to the games and a volunteer during them, I witnessed what went on firsthand. Romney's account of his role is not only predictably self-aggrandizing and inaccurate, but an affront to the people of Utah who came together to make the games successful and who collectively set the record for the largest volunteer base in Olympic history.
The Utah Olympic games were successful for many reasons, but Romney parachuting in front of the already-moving parade and positioning for his political future is not one of them.
Credit goes to the 23,000 Utahns who were there, before him and after, working long hours behind the scenes.
I'm very proud of what Utah accomplished in 2002. Mitt Romney had very little to do with any of it.
Bill Paulos
Salt Lake City