Document text
Hyatt Lake rancher creates a mini Olympic venue Mail Tribune photos / Roy Musitelli Unable to attend the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Tom Smith did the next best thing to being there: He transformed his pond into an Olympic skating rink. By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune ASHLAND - Tom Smith's seven acres of winter heaven atop the Cascade Mountains are a snowy and icy tribute to the best of winter sports. The Salt Lake City games flag dances in the wind, as do the United States and international Olympic committee flags. And small Olympic collector pins denoting the countries of the various athletes are everywhere. You'd mistake Smith's ranch near Hyatt Lake for Salt Lake City, if not for the missing crowds and lack of airspace restrictions. "Planes fly over and circle back," Smith says, "like the pilot's saying, 'What the hell is that?' " That is the set of Olympic rings that helps transform Smith's summer pond into an Olympic rink, the pi�ce de r�sistance of Smith's personal tribute to the 2002 Winter Games. The 50-year-old former travel agent with a deep-rooted Winter Olympics fetish has transformed his ranch into a mini-replica of the games now underway in Utah. From the flying flags to the five colored, interconnected rings laid in his frozen pond, Smith is honoring all the thrills of victory and agonies of defeat facing this year's athletes. "It's all to celebrate the Olympics," he says. "It's fun, and it looks great." But Smith takes his Olympics fun quite seriously. Smith has visited all but one of the Winter Olympics' host cities since they began in 1924 at Chamonix, France. But he'll complete the circuit this summer with a visit to Oslo, Norway, the 1952 host and birthplace of Smith's most beloved Olympic event - skiing. Last month, he drove to Klamath Falls to catch a glimpse of the Olympic flame as it stopped briefly en route from Athens to Salt Lake City. Smith was awed by it. "It was so cool," Smith says. "I can't describe how cool it was." He collects Olympic flags and is now flying the 2002 version on one of five poles that dot his ranch, which is not open for public viewing. The showpiece, however, is the rings imbedded in the ice, something Smith created in 1994 during the Lillehammer games but couldn't for Nagano in 1998. "Not cold enough," he says. Smith cut 3-foot rings out of colored plastic, then arranged them in proper order. He regularly coats the ring area with water, which freezes overnight and leaves a slick surface Smith keeps impeccably clean with a snow-blower. "I am," Smith says, "the creative sort." Despite his interests, Smith will create his memories of the 2002 games while glued to the boob-tube - just like everyone else. "Some friends offered me tickets, but I can't go," Smith says. "I'm right in the middle of taking some computer classes." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.