By Joy Lawrance, Globe Correspondent, 07/22/01

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			The bobsled run at the Utah Olympic Park near Park City, (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)  If you go  Utah's four ski areas

``Cross your arms on your chest, scrunch your shoulders up, and lean back.'' Tour guide Amanda Olson has one more thing to add, ``If you're going to pee your pants, don't pee in the bobsled.''

Olson leads tours of Utah Olympic Park for thrill-seekers who choose to place life and limb in peril and career down the bobsled run. The 50-second ride is available to visitors to the park, which is located about 30 minutes from Salt Lake City, the host for the XIX Olympic Winter Games next February. The last time the Games were in the United States was in 1980, at Lake Placid, N.Y.

The serpentine 4,400-foot course drops 390 feet and features 17 curves. On an ice-coated track, bobsleds may reach speeds of up to 90 miles per hour. During the summer, wheels are mounted on sleds and speeds are reduced to 65.

That's fast enough to create head-whipping G-forces and make every little bump seem like hitting a boulder.

``If your head drops forward, you won't be able to raise it and you'll miss the whole ride,'' Olson warns. Three girls in a sled screamed the entire length of the track. Or at least they thought they did. Once they hit the first curve at 3 to 4 G's, they stopped wailing - but never realized it.

Earlier, my husband and I had admired four members of the US ski jump team who were practicing 90-meter jumps. With no snow in sight on this bright warm day, athletes train on a special plastic ``grass'' that offers consistent conditions. These fearless fliers astound the small group of spectators in the stands. They soar through the air, and then land with more grace than I have getting out of my car.

Later, we stand at the top of the jump and gulp at its plunging slope. I remark that these guys must be insane to trust their bodies to gravity. But Olson insists this is the safest of all winter sports because, she says, ``Everything is so controlled. Weather and track conditions are monitored constantly, and events canceled if they're not just right.''

Many of us voice disbelief. But we're surprised to learn that once the jumper is airborne, he is only about 10 feet off the ground. During his flight, he follows the contour of the slope about six feet above it.

``Does anyone remember the Agony of Defeat?'' someone asks. We recall that famous sequence from the intro to the longtime ABC television show ``Wide World of Sports'' showing a jumper tumbling head over tail down a hill. Someone remarks that he wasn't seriously injured. But somehow this is not reassuring and there are no takers on Olson's offer of a jump lesson.

The Olympic Park also has 64-meter and 46-meter jumps, and junior 20-meter jump where early training starts. Beginners as young as 4 test their wings along with grown-up visitors who may be older, but not necessarily wiser.

From here we head to the top of the bobsled and luge run. Today's bare concrete track will be covered with two inches of ice in winter, kept in condition with more than 60 miles of evaporator refrigerator tubing and the first ever awning-style cover, extended when inclement weather threatens conditions.

Considered the world's fastest for sliding sports, the track has received the International Olympic award for excellence in environmental planning and design.

Olson describes the split-second timing required for push-off and explains some steering techniques. In a race where every twitch counts and times are calculated to gffr1100th of a second, there is no time to think. The course must be memorized.

For the first time since the 1948 Olympics, when it was discontinued, the event ``skeleton'' will join the medal competition in February. The racer lies chest down on a sled 3 feet long by 16 inches wide. He speeds down the course like a bullet, with his chin about 2 inches off the ice, using subtle body shifts to steer himself. Olson quips, ``At least you can see where you're going to crash.'' I refuse to speculate as to why it's called skeleton.

Luge is considered the fastest winter Olympic sport, with victory measured in milliseconds. Double luge racers can get into double trouble, though. With nothing but a fiberglass shell on two steel-bladed runners, one racer lies on top of the other as they create a blur on the track. Olson says: ``So they're going down top heavy, strapped in the sled with the top guy the eyes and the bottom guy the driver. If they flip, they're stuck like that till the next corner - going 80 miles per hour. Now these guys are crazy!''

We make our way to the freestyle aerial skiing training pool. Yes, pool - with 750,000 gallons of water. These daredevils slide down a ski jump with a ``kicker'' at the bottom that sends them up to 70 feet skyward. Once airborne, they perform flips and twists before landing in the pool at 55 miles per hour. Powerful aerating jets bubble the surface of the water, which not only softens impact, but the white froth aids in judging distance.

In this summertime facility, a skier practices and receives certification for each trick, which must be performed successfully more than 100 times in the pool. Five coaches judge the skier's preparedness to hit the snow. The athlete is then given the OK to perform, for example, three back flips and two twists in competition. We learn that the US competitors, considered the best in the world, execute tricks that won't be used in the games - because no one else can do them.

Anyone 2 years and older who wants to experience the adrenalin rush of this sport can get harnessed into a ``Jack'' bungee, learn flips and twists, then land on an inflated ``pillow.'' Again, there are no volunteers in our group.

Other Olympic venues in and around Salt Lake City offer opportunities for tours or attending training sessions. The Delta Center, home of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association, will be the site for figure skating, while ice hockey is played at the E Center and speed skating held at the Utah Olympic Oval. Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah will host the opening and closing ceremonies. Historic Fort Douglas and its museum can be visited now, but as the location of the Olympic Village, where athletes and coaches will be housed, it will be off-limits during the games.

With all the venues nearly complete, road and transportation improvements, and an abundance of hotel rooms at attractive prices, it makes sense to head to Salt Lake City soon. The time is perfect to visit the Olympic sites, enjoy the crowd-free atmosphere, take a ski jump lesson, or try that bobsled ride so that you can say, ``Been there-done that'' as you watch the Games.

Joy Lawrance is a freelance writer from Golden, Colo.