| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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6 D.C. aides to join relay
By Lee Davidson
Deseret News Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON — Six aides to Utah's members of Congress will join the Olympic torch relay as it visits Washington Friday. Five are looking forward to it with nearly unbridled joy.
The sixth, Liz Howell, is more somber. After all, she is running to honor her late husband, Brady Howell, 26, who was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
"He was my hero," she said. "I am running in honor of my husband."
Howell, an aide on the House Resources Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, says joining the relay is just the sort of thing her late husband would have appreciated.
"He was into sports," she said. "That's why it has more meaning to me. Brady would run a lot, and he had certain goals. He wanted to compete in a marathon someday."
That dream ended Sept. 11 when terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 — scheduled to fly between Washington and Los Angeles — and smashed it into the wedge of the Pentagon where Brady Howell was working as an intern for the chief of naval intelligence. His body was found a week later.
Liz Howell, on that Sept. 11 morning, was also evacuated from her Capitol Hill offices. Workers could clearly see the Pentagon smoke as they left — hurried along by officials worried that another hijacked plane might be targeting the Capitol. That plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted.
Liz Howell, a native of Honeyville in Box Elder County, met her Idaho-raised husband at Utah State University. "I have a locket that I will be wearing around my neck that has a picture of my husband."
She added, "It is a complete honor. . . . Just the very idea that he would be honored this way is overwhelming." And while her husband never was able to compete in his goal of a marathon, "at least I can run in this relay," she said.
While she was chosen to be among 100 people nationally in the torch relay with Sept. 11 ties, five other congressional staffers were chosen to run the torch in Washington as a symbol of thanks to their bosses for help with Olympic preparations. And they are excited.
Chris MacKay, a legislative assistant to Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said, "I was absolutely floored when they called and said I could carry it. It is a once-in-100 lifetimes opportunity."
He added that Olympics officials asked each Utah member of Congress to choose one aide for the relay who had worked on Olympics issues.
MacKay said Cannon's entire staff say they hope to watch him run. "The running joke has been that they will play the theme from 'Chariots of Fire' while I run," he said.
Bill Johnson, legislative director for Hansen, another torchbearer, said, "It's a tremendous surprise. It's one of those things you dream about as a kid — being in the Olympics. . . . I'm unlikely to do that, so this will be as close as I come."
He said his family in Georgia is even more excited. "The torch for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta went right by their house. They are more excited about me running than I am."
Stacey Alexander, chief of staff for Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who is also running, said, "This is a huge honor, and I'm thrilled just to participate in this historic event, and honored to represent Utah." She adds that Matheson's staff will be on the street cheering her.
Other aides running include Chip Yost, chief of staff to Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Roslyn G. Trojan, aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on defense matters.
But the torch isn't just for Utah's members of Congress. They wrote all other members of Congress this week urging them to welcome the Olympic torch when it arrives on the East Steps of the Capitol on Friday, and enjoy ceremonies there.
Congress recently had to pass a special bill to allow the torch onto Capitol grounds. Rules there normally ban open flames.
Congressional staffers are not the only Utahns who will run in Washington. Alan Radmall of Lindon, Utah County, is flying from Utah to Washington just to have a chance to carry the torch for two-tenths of a mile.
"One of the things they told me when I was nominated to carry the torch is that you don't get to select where you will run. It just so happens that I have to go to D.C. to do that," he said.
"But we're all very excited and anxious to go," he said. "I consider it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and this is something we are paying ourselves to do. I'm coming with my wife, my mother and dad, and my sister and brother-in-law."
All those Utahns will join some big-name celebrities also running in the nation's capital — from former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to actor Tom Hanks and Fox News anchor Brit Hume.
E-mail: lee@desnews.com
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December 20, 2001
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