Salt Lake City Olympics ring up $101 million profit

The 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which once hoped merely to break even on a $1.3 billion budget, wound up with a $101 million profit, organizers said.

Fraser Bullock, chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, said the surplus was almost double the $56 million projected in April, two months after the Games ended. A statement from the SLOC said the profit grew through unused contingency funds and cost cuts on venue restoration. There also were savings on ceremonies and litigation.

The extra money will help finance U.S. sports programs and keep the venues from the Winter Olympics in shape for training and competition.

Utah organizers long said that their goal was to break even on the budget, which was battered by reaction to the million-dollar scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's winning bid for the Games. Ten International Olympic Committee members were expelled or resigned as a result of the worst corruption case in Olympics history.

"When we look back 3-1/2 years, we never could have imagined that we would have done anything but break even, let alone produce a profit of $101 million," Bullock said.

Because Olympics are staged by cities in a full range of economic and government systems, it is hard to judge where the Salt Lake City surplus ranks. It is less than half the figure generally used as the benchmark of Olympic financial success — the $225 million left from the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, the first to be financed entirely by private enterprise.

Golf

Suzy Whaley became the first woman to qualify for a PGA Tour event, earning an exemption to next year's Greater Hartford Open by winning a PGA Section Championship in Ellington, Conn.

Whaley, also the first woman to win a section title, shot a 1-under-par 71 to finish at 5-under 211.

The 35-year-old played from tees 10 percent closer to the hole than the men's tees.

Dan Baker, Greater Hartford Open chairman, said Whaley would have to play the tournament from the same tees as the men. "We'd be thrilled to have her," Baker said.

Tennis

• With her sister not around, Serena Williams needed a doubles partner. She found one of the best — Martina Navratilova.

Williams, a 20-year-old who normally plays doubles with Venus, teamed with the 45-year-old Navratilova for a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Conchita Martinez and Nicole Pratt in the first round of the Toyota Princess Cup in Tokyo.

• Marcelo Rios paid a fine for attacking a taxi driver and two policemen hours after the Chilean player was knocked out of the Italian Open last year.

Rios' lawyer, Luigi Fischetti, said the fine, described as not being very much, was paid a month ago.

NHL

Philadelphia right wing Mark Recchi will be sidelined from three to five weeks because of a sprained right knee, an injury that could cause him to miss the Flyers' regular-season opener Oct. 10.

He was injured in a scrimmage Monday.

Boxing

A daughter of former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was arrested on a charge of trying to shoplift bedding from a store in Rossford, Ohio, last week.

Hana Yasmeen Ali, 26, from Berrien Springs, Mich., was scheduled to appear in Perrysburg (Ohio) Municipal Court today on a misdemeanor charge of attempted theft.

Employees at the store, Linens & Things, also reported that she tried to tamper with a price tag on a $69.99 picture frame.

College basketball

Ohio State forward Matt Sylvester is expected to recover from a gunshot wound in time to play for the Buckeyes this season.

Sylvester was shot Sept. 1 in Loveland, Ohio.

Horse racing

Sky Jack, winner of the Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup in Inglewood, Calif., in July, had a third operation to remove a bone chip in his right knee and will be out of training for six months.

High-school football

Dominique Johnson, a sophomore at Pemberton (N.J.) High School, collapsed and died of an apparent asthma attack after a practice. He was 15.

Johnson complained of tightness in his chest during the Monday workout. His asthma inhaler didn't seem to help. When his condition worsened, a trainer tried to revive him.

Johnson was taken to a hospital in Mount Holly, where he died.

— Times news services

Information in this article, originally published September 18, was corrected September 23. A previous version of this story erroneously reported that tennis star Venus Williams was involved in an accident in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Palm Beach County Sheriff's officials say Williams' half-brother, his wife and daughter were in a car that was hit from behind, but that Venus was not involved.