hen Thomas Kenyon Welch first launched himself into public life in 1968, he thought he was just running for Weber State student body president. But now Mr. Welch considers that campus political campaign 23 years ago as basic training for his present job as chairman and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Bid Committee for the Winter Olympic Games. “The manner in which you work through problems is no different today in the Olympic effort than it was while I was involved in student government on the Weber State campus,” says Mr. Welch, 47. “And, to an extent, this work is no more rewarding or interesting than that. It’s just a different time and a different playing field.” Mr. Welch won the presidency of Weber State’s student body in 1968. But the team he forged to bring the 1998 Winter Olympics to Utah fell short of its goal last June when members of the International Olympic Committee, gathered in Birmingham, England, voted 46 to 42 to award the Games to Nagano, Japan. While thousands of Utahns were disappointed at the outcome of the IOC balloting, the Welch family had more invested in the Olympic gamble than most. The Salt Lake attorney gave up a lucrative career as vice president and general counsel of the Smith’s Food and Drug chain in 1990 to devote himself full time and without pay to the Salt Lake Olympic bid. But the term “full time” gradually took on a new meaning to his wife Alma and the six Welch children. “Tt was the most difficult thing we’ve ever undertaken as a family,” Mr. Welch says. “They were accustomed to me working 60 to 70 hours a week. But, for 260 nights prior to June 15, we didn’t have a night off. “That meant I was either on the road doing Olympic business, or that we had members of the OC here in town, or we were entertaining people associated with the bid. We had 100 dinner parties in our home during that period.” It was 5-year-old David Welch who became the “barometer” of household pressure, Mr. Welch says. At one point, the lad logically decided that his father was home so seldom that he must have moved to another house. So, last November, David innocently asked if he could play at his father’s new house sometime. Despite those financial and personal sacrifices, Mr. Welch says he is ready to devote another four years of his life to try to win the 2002 Winter Olympic Games for Utah. “There’s certainly a personal price for doing that,” Mr. Welch says. “But Alma and I hope that we’re exposing our children to the role that they can play in the world, not just in this community or in this state. And we’re also teaching about sacrifice and giving. “Tf our children can learn those lessons, then the Olympic bid process will be worth the commitment we’re making.” After graduating with a bachelor of science degree from Weber State in 1969, Mr. Welch earned a law degree from George Washington University. While practicing law in Utah, he served as president of the Weber State Alumni Association, as a member of the Institutional Council, on the Ogden Housing Authority, as a member of the Chamber of Commerce and as campaign chairman and president of the Greater Salt Lake United Way. Although he was spectacularly successful in his personal and business affairs, Mr. Welch admits that he has been through very tying times with the Olympics. It was 1985 when Gov. Norm Bangerter and Salt Lake City Mayor Palmer DePaulis first asked Mr. Welch for a small miracle. At the time, Salt Lake was exploring the possibility of seeking the U.S. Olympic Committee’s nod to compete internationally to host the 1994 Winter Games. But the USOC had unexpectedly moved up its deadline for bid submission. Gov. Bangerter and Mayor DePaulis wanted Mr. Welch to supervise the local bid committee’s drafting of a proposal in a period of just 30 days. “We worked around the clock for a month to put together a bid,” Mr. Welch says. “We went back to the USOC meeting in Indianapolis with a very good technical bid. But we had absolutely no idea of the political realities involved in the process. We ran headfirst into Anchorage — which had been working on its bid proposal for about two years — and we just got our tails kicked. And that made me mad.” Mr. Welch put that anger to good use, however. He spent the next four years becoming what former Bangerter aide Bud Scruggs calls “the personification” of Utah’s Olympic effort. Mr. Welch says he learned everything there was to know about winning an Olympic bid and then assembled a team talented enough to accomplish that for the 1998 Winter Games. At first, it seemed as though Mr. Welch’s luck was changing. His team won the USOC’s permission to vie with Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Soviet contenders for the Games. Then a 1989 statewide referendum okayed diversion of $56 million in tax money for construction of Olympic facilities. A campaign to raise more millions needed to sponsor local visits by international Olympic officials also was successful. But the jinx returned and the brass ring eluded Utah again. Nevertheless, Mr. Welch is still willing to stake his reputation that the next time will be the charm for Salt Lake and Utah. “T’ve been involved with efforts for the public good since my days at Weber State,” Mr. Welch says. “My family raised me with the recognition that we all have an obligation to put something back into the community. And I think the Olympics have given me a focal point from which to try to repay the community that has been so good to me and my family.”