Salt Lake City ? The Olympic torch is a slender, flickering flame. The athletes gathered for tonight’s Opening Ceremony of the XIX Winter Games seem to wonder if it is hot enough or bright enough to do what is being asked of it in this first post-Sept. 11 Olympics.

U.S. alpine skier Bode Miller, who has a decent chance of winning a gold medal in Sunday’s men’s downhill, shifted uncomfortably when someone asked him about winning one for the USA, and helping America cope with tragedy.

Members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of Fort Hall, Utah, dance at a team welcoming ceremony at the Olympic Village in Salt Lake City. The Winter Olympics begin today.

“It was a tragedy that can’t be fixed,” Miller said. “Winning a gold medal is not going to help that. For me, it’s about being here and representing the U.S. and trying to show that I’m not afraid to risk what I’ve got, and grasp the opportunity to go out and give everything that I’ve got.”

Thursday, athletes and U.S. Olympic officials seemed to want to strike a balance between patriotism and reassuring the world that the Opening Ceremony and the Games will not be focused solely on America, with more than 2,500 athletes from 77 countries scheduled to compete here in 78 events.

“This is an opportunity for us to put America’s best foot forward, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” said USOC President Sandy Baldwin.

USOC Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Ward said: “Certainly we expect to see flags flying, chanting of ‘USA,'” but Ward also stressed the need to “respect and value those around you, and understand and appreciate those differences.”

Competitive heritage

Skeleton competitor Jim Shea Jr., a third-generation U.S. Olympian, was chosen to recite the Olympic oath, an honor that goes to an athlete from the host country. His grandfather, Jack Shea, recited the oath in 1932, when the Games were in Lake Placid, N.Y. Jack Shea, who won two gold medals in speedskating, was killed in an auto accident near Lake Placid on Jan. 22.

“My grandfather said a long time ago that the Olympics are about bringing the world together,” Jim Shea Jr. said Thursday. “About competing and fair play. It’s about the experience. To me, it’s not necessarily about bringing home the gold medal. It’s about being in the Olympic Village; it’s about peaceful, friendly competition.”

The much-discussed World Trade Center flag will be marched in Friday night, by a delegation of eight U.S. athletes and three New York Port Authority police officers.

“The flag is so important to so many people,” Shea said. “This attack was an attack on me, my family and friends, and the world. For us to say that we’re still standing is very, very important. … There are so many people who have been affected. It’s very important to the athletes and to me to have that flag.”

U.S. hopes

Once the flag is raised and the Games are opened, the United States has high hopes of dramatically improving its Winter Olympic record of 13 medals, set in 1994 and equaled in 1998. It isn’t so much that the U.S. athletes are dramatically better, it’s more that the number of medal events has increased from 38 in 1980, the last time the U.S. played host, to 78 this year and many of the events that have been added, such as snowboarding and women’s ice hockey, are strong ones for the United States.

There also is a home-field advantage. Several dozen of the 200 U.S. athletes have been living and training in Utah over the last few years. They know the venues’ secrets.

Short-track speedskater Apolo Ohno from Seattle is the best American bet to win multiple gold medals. The alpine ski team, a pleasant surprise in 1998, looks strong again, and all three female U.S. figure skaters Michelle Kwan, Sarah Hughes and Sasha Cohen are medal contenders. The 1998 gold medal U.S. women’s ice hockey team again looks dominant.

The NHL again will shut down, this time for only 12 days, sending its stars off to compete for their countries. The Czech Republic still has goalie Dominik Hasek, who keyed its surprise gold medal run in 1998, but Team Canada, which features the Philadelphia Flyers’ Simon Gagne, would seem to have the richest lode of talent. The Americans including the Flyers’ John LeClair and Jeremy Roenick are eager to shake their legacy of Nagano failure, which included a controversy over trashing furniture in the Olympic Village.

“I just don’t think we took it as seriously as we should have,” Roenick said recently, when asked about ’98. “Being here in the States this time, the fans won’t let us forget why we’re here.”

That probably holds true for every American athlete, in every sport.

“There’s probably a little more pressure on us to produce,” said short-track speedskater Amy Peterson, who will carry the U.S. flag Friday night. “But ultimately, I see it as a friendly situation. Every single person that works at the facilities, that we walk by on the street, they’re all supporting us, and to compete in the United States of America, for the United States of America, for me, is probably the biggest privilege I’ll have.”