It was a selfless motive that led Mitt to return to Utah at a comfortable point in his family life and career at Bain, to salvage the Olympics and resuscitate the spirit of the games.  He didn’t do it for the glory, the applause, the money, the attention.  He made an inconvenient move for the Lord’s convenience and for the sake of good. Those kinds of decisions aren’t bred in a moment. They come from a lifestyle of choices, from an attitude of yielding to what’s right and best.  They may also be reflections of his mother’s moral core and mantra, “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?”  Encouraged by his visionary and faithful wife, Ann, Mitt made the move and never looked back.

And it was for the best.  He did reclaim the process and rectified the wounds of prominent officials who had been dishonorable in bribing and accepting bribes proposed to them.  He dealt with tremendous opposition–canceled corporate sponsors, the need for increased security due to threats of all kinds, a fearful NBC concerned with its $545 million investment, and more. Yet he methodically worked the numbers as he always does, and they told him what he needed to know.  “The Winter Olympics began with a projected deficit of $379 million. By the end of the games, a surplus of $55 million remained” (Turner & Field, Mitt Romney, Mapletree Publishing, p 28). He rescued the Olympics and restored the spirit that enveloped the celebration.  As Governor Leavitt stated:

I realized I was participating in one of the few moments in the history of the state where everyone’s hearts were beating hard together. It didn’t matter where you were . . . if you pulled over to the side of the road to listen,  if you huddled around the television at work, or you had your children in the family room, the same thing was happening (NBC Report Leading Up to Opening Ceremonies).

The eyes of the world were on Utah in February as Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Much attention was focused on the Church as its leaders and members joined with the Salt Lake community in welcoming the world. “It goes clear back to the book of Isaiah, which says that Zion would be established at the tops of the mountains and that the nations of the world would come there,” said Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in a Los Angeles Times article. “In a sense we expected it. Only, the prophecies didn’t say anything about downhill skiing.”

Mitt Romney was the man of the hour.

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