Booze, beer and the 2002 Winter Olympics

By George J. Van Komen, M.D.

During a press conference in March 2001, serious concerns were expressed by members of Utah's Alcohol Policy Coalition about the active involvement of Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewer in the world with the 2002 Salt Winter Olympic Games. That same day, Mr. Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee came out with an official statement from the Olympic organizing committee. As quoted in an Associated Press article, Mr. Romney, despite being a declared teetotaller, gave his full support of the Anheuser-Busch sponsorship by stating, "They're an excellent company, they're very generous in support of the Games and I'm pleased they decided to support the Olympic Games."

After years of effort by members of Utah's Alcohol Policy Coalition, supported by thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations world-wide, to limit the sponsorship of the Olympic games by Anheuser-Busch and alcoholic beverage companies, Olympic officials remained loath to change their minds. When asked for a reason, they repeatedly stated that they needed the financial support.

Anheuser-Busch worked hard for years to make certain that Utah's alcohol advertising laws were in line with their own ideas on how best to promote their Budweiser Beer during the Olympic games. In 1996, a year after Utah was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, a lawsuit was filed against the State of Utah in regards to the constitutionality of the alcohol advertising laws that were in place. Anheuser-Busch Officials wanted to make it clear that they were literally going to hold the state of Utah in financial hostage, by threatening not to bring their money to Utah if alcohol laws were not liberalized. A legal brief filed by Anheuser-Busch, Inc, with the Utah Alcohol Beverage Control Commission in 1996, stated, "Utah's restrictions on beer advertising – all of which impose criminal penalties on violators – will be a factor in AB's decision whether to invest the millions of dollars required to sponsor the Winter Olympics Games in 2002." Needless to say, the advertising laws were changed and significantly liberalized.

Mixing sports with alcohol is always a bad combination but mixing alcohol with the worldwide, youth-oriented Olympics no doubt is the worst mix of all. This certainly was the case with the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic games. Despite numerous early warnings and expressions of concern, Olympic organizers allowed, promoted and supported a number of alcoholic beverage companies aggressively to sell and promote their alcoholic beverage products during the entire 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games.

In an April 1998 face to face meeting with the executive committee of the 2002 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, members of the Utah Alcohol Policy Coalition were repeatedly assured that there was no cause for concern because "there had never been an incident relating to alcohol during an Olympic games." This statement can no longer be repeated after the Salt Lake Winter Olympics because of a major fiasco with a skeleton gold medal winner Jim Shea and a major, dangerous riot developing adjacent to Bud World which involving 6,000 to 8,000 drunken Olympic revellers.

One of the most emotional stories of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics was the sudden death of Jack Shea, a former double gold medal Winter Olympian for the United States at Lake Placid, New York, in 1932. He was killed in a crash caused by a drunken driver on January 21, 2002, just weeks before the beginning of the Salt Lake Games. His death was particularly difficult because of his plans to attend the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and to see his grandson, Jim Shea, an Olympic athlete in the skeleton, become the first third generation American to participate in the Olympic Games. This story so touched the United States that Jim Shea was the only Olympian invited by President George W. Bush to attend his State of the Union Address in Washington D.C. on January 29, 2002. Jim Shea was invited to sit next to First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush. On February 8, 2002, during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, watched by a television audience of over 3 billion, Jim Shea read the Olympic Oath.

Excitement ran high, as Jim Shea competed in the skeleton race, on Wednesday, February 20, 2002. Tucked inside his helmet was a picture of his just deceased grandfather. He was the enthusiastic favourite. Jim Shea won the race in picture book quality, winning the Olympic Gold Medal by a mere .05 seconds, accomplished with a desperate final burst of speed at the end of the race. A tearful, reported inebriated Jim Shea received his gold medal that evening, during an emotional Medal's Plaza Celebration, holding his grandfather's gold medal in his hands, in front of 20,000 roaring spectators and a worldwide Olympic audience.

Jim Shea's life as a role model continued to turn sour. The day after his exhilarating celebration of wining the Gold Medal, he was seen on local television riding on top of the Budweiser Clydesdale horse drawn carriage passing out Anhueser-Busch souvenirs to a surging crowd, which including young kids as they wrestled forward to see and greet their new Olympic hero.

This visible display of promoting an alcoholic beverage company, just weeks after his grandfathers death at the hands of a drunken driver, seemed at best, a shallow display of insincerity. Shame on Jim Shea for not being sensitive enough to perceive this incredible contradiction. But shame, shame, shame on Anheuser-Busch officials for allowing this type of exploitation to occur.

Anheuser-Busch had repeatedly stated publicly before the Olympic Games that they were going to act "responsibly" during the Olympics Games, but this single activity showed that their actions speak much louder than their words.

Several weeks later on Friday, March 8, 2002 Jim Shea showed consistent callousness about alcohol issues while addressing the student body of his high school from which he graduated, in West Hartford, Connecticut. His comments surprised a stunned faculty as he not only failed to condemn underage drinking, but his remarks actually appeared to support illegal alcohol consumption.

When Shea remarked to the stunned young student body, "I'm not saying not to drink; I drank a lot in this school. What I am saying is, don't die. Don't be crippled for the rest of your life, don't lose your arm, don't mangle your face" he received a standing, thunderous response. His ill-stated remarks prompted student council president Todd Olmstead, to conclude, "It's kind of a bad example."

Careful research of Jim Shea's past revealed that he was arrested in 1998 for drunken driving himself, while living in Park City, Utah, training to compete as an Olympic athlete in the skeleton. He pleaded guilty to this crime, paid several thousand dollars in penalties and did a host of hours of community service.

During the late hours of the second to last night of the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games a riot broke out near Bud World, the home of the huge beer guzzling Olympic celebration sponsored by the official Olympic supporter, Anheuser-Busch. The local Salt Lake City police, as well as government leaders had turned a blind eye during the two weeks of the Olympic Games to both Utah's open container laws as well as to public underage drinking. The streets of Salt Lake City became drenched with alcohol during the time of the Winter Olympic Games.

The riotous disturbance developed when thousands of drinking, intoxicated revellers descended on Bud World around 11 o'clock at night after the conclusion of the Medals Plaza concert by the popular singing group 'N Sync. Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse estimated there were 6,000 to 8,000 jamming to get into Bud world at each of the two entrances into Bud World. Seeing this mass of celebrants descending upon their huge beer imbibing party, the officials at Bud World decided to close early, which further infuriated and fuelled the drunken crowd.

This huge crowd of intoxicated Bud World celebrants mixing with the thousands who were being refused entrance into Anheuser-Busch's beer drinking party became belligerent, unruly, and began to sexually harass and threaten females within the crowd. Law enforcement officers were sent in to rescue them. This out-of-control crowd quickly required 200 to 300 federal and local police officers in full riot gear armed with billy clubs and guns with rubber bullets to cause them to disperse. As this lawless crowd was forced to scatter, increased anger arose and rocks, glass bottles, beer cans and firecrackers were thrown at the police. Finally, to move the crowd, the police were forced to fire literally hundreds of rounds of rubber bullets into this mass of humanity. Surprisingly, given the intensity of the situation, only a few officers and few crowd members sustained any substantial injuries. Police cars were smashed, signs were ripped out and thrown, and store front windows were broken. One member of the crowd, a lady from North Carolina, was heard to cry out, "Things like this don't happen in Utah." A total of twenty-one people were arrested, on charges ranging from failing to disperse, public intoxication and assaulting an officer.

By morning, when the riot had quieted down, both city and Bud World officials went into a defensive, "damage-control" mode. A genuine "cover-up" was developing. City cleanup crews worked double time throughout the night to clear the streets of broken glass, plastic beer bottles and beer cans as well as large amounts of other debris. Anheuser-Busch, not surprisingly remained silent. Public officials absolved Bud World from any wrongdoing or even any responsibility. Mayor Rocky Anderson and other city officials referred to the riot at Bud World, as a "minor blip," a "rare instance," and "just one bad night." The Mayor stated that he was disappointed in some media reports that called the Saturday night disturbance a "riot." He summed up the Olympic celebrations by saying, "I don't think you've ever seen a more peaceful celebration with this many people." Police Chief Dinse was more realistic as he admitted, "In hindsight, I would say that there's no question alcohol had an impact on the actions of the crowd." Salt Lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard, was however, much more realistic, as he stated, "This situation was indeed a riot."

The response of Olympic officials also attempted to distance the riot from the Olympic Games. The President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, called the disturbance, "unfortunate" and quickly added that the riot was "not a Games-related issue." Mitt Romney, President of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee likewise distanced himself and the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee from the riot by calling it an "aberration." He also downplayed the size of the riot by saying, "There were 200 to 300 people who had a few too many and needed to be sent home, and they were done so with dispatch." Despite his long-standing, strong public support for the sponsorship of Anheuser-Busch for the Olympic Games, he declared, "You're going to have some celebrations when alcohol is a concern late at night, and that's not something that was part of the Olympic experience."

In the early morning hours behind closed doors, officials debated what to do on the final day of the Olympics to prevent another similar out-of-control occurrence. They decided to enforce open container laws, crack down on underage drinking, disperse any unruly crowds and most appropriately, finally, close Bud World at 5 p.m.

Finally hours before the closing of the Olympics, Anheuser-Busch's voice was silenced

After the Olympics I wrote a letter to Anheuser-Busch President, Mr. August A. Bush III and other Anheuser-Busch officials. I asked why Anheuser-Busch had chosen to remain so silent after the Olympics and if they were willing to accept any responsibility for the Salt Lake Olympic Riot, given the enormous amount of alcohol consumption occurring both inside and around "Bud World." I also asked them to explain why a responsible company would allow Jim Shea, an athlete with a history of serious alcohol problems to ride on top of the Clydesdales. I received a response from the head of the company's alcohol awareness efforts, Ms. Francine Katz. The letter concluded that it would not be productive to discuss events that "occurred well over a month ago." I was also told in the letter that I was on the "other side of the fence" of alcohol issues from the officials at Anheuser-Busch.

My response to Ms. Katz's letter follows: "In your letter you mention that you and I are on the opposite side of the fence when it comes to alcohol issues. I am on the side of the fence that works towards reducing drunken driving, preventing underage drinking, reducing alcohol-related crime and domestic violence and preventing medical illnesses, such as cirrhoses, cancer and high blood pressure many of which are related to the abuse and misuse of alcoholic beverage consumption. As you know, these alcohol-related problems result in the premature death of over 100,000 Americans each year. I must therefore truthfully ask what side of the fence are you and Anheuser-Busch really on?"

Although the efforts of the Alcohol Policy Coalition and many others who supported the efforts of Utah's Alcohol Policy, failed to prevent alcohol-related problems during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, we did do our very best. The future offers many hopeful possibilities. As a worldwide community we can now draw upon the past to help prevent Olympic alcohol-related problems in the future. The alcohol prevention community has the opportunity to appeal to the International Olympic Committee to prevent incidents as occurred in association with the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games. Our strongest argument will be that we do not want to have alcoholic beverages become a blight and a disruption for the true Olympic movement and ideals.

Alcohol-related problems continue worldwide. A marvellous forum to bring this issue to front stage, worldwide will be the Olympic Games. The world community needs to promote ideals and standards compatible with the Olympic spirit and the true competition of sports. Everyone should agree, that alcohol and the enormous social problems associated with its use, should not be part of this movement.

We would do well to listen to the advice of Enoch Gordis, M.D., former director of the United States', National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA).

"Alcohol is the number one drug of choice among our Nation's youth. Yet the seriousness of this issue does not register with the general public or policy makers."