Utah Olympic Park officials are aiming to smooth tensions between some staffers and a group of athletes who have disabilities.
Dave Nicholls, founder of the U.S. Adaptive-Paralympic Bobsled Association, claims he and his fellow sliders have been mistreated by park employees. People on his bobsled team have disabilities and Nicholls claimed facilities at the Utah Olympic Park are in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We are in the process of working through numerous issues,” said Jimmy Shea, who coaches the adaptive bobsledders. “We have a lot of people who are really paying attention to this and we’re hoping to have great results very shortly.”
According to Nicholls, facilities at the park continue to be “in gross violation” of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
In a Nov. 29 e-mail, Nicholls stated that he raised his concerns with Utah Athletic Foundation President/CEO Colin Hilton, who ignored his complaints.
Nicholls claimed the athletes with disabilities have been denied proper access to parking and restrooms at the park.
The athletes are also not scheduled equal time on the track and fees the park charges the adaptive team are discriminatory, Nicolls added.
“I stand behind the athletes. I know that the athletes have not lied. They have not broken any code of conduct,” Shea said in a telephone interview.
Shea said he is consulting with Americans with Disabilities Act experts to determine whether facilities at the park comply with federal law.
“In the last meeting, the track told me that they will have full access to all the training times, which makes my athletes extremely happy. There was also an issue on how they would pay and what they would pay,” Shea said. “I think there is a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding about a lot of things and that is one of the reasons why I am getting involved with the organization.”
Members of the adaptive bobsled team have also claimed they have been harassed by track employees.
“I’m trying to explain for the park how to deal with athletes that are living their dream,” Shea said. “Sometimes they unfortunately clash a little bit and I am just trying to soften the edges on both sides.”
The Utah Olympic Park is one of the only bobsled tracks in the world that allows athletes with disabilities to slide.
“It’s an $82 million facility that I think a lot more people should be using,” Shea said. “People of Utah paid for that for the Olympics and I think the track is severely underused at this point.”
Track officials responded by saying that they are looking into the athletes’ claims that the facility is in violation of federal law.
“We want to ask our attorneys what are we required to do,” said Marc Norman, Utah Athletic Foundation vice president of sport and venues.
He said many of the concerns were first expressed to him last week.
“Our challenges were maybe communication related. Hopefully going forward we can keep open dialogue with one another and keep addressing things as they arise,” Norman said. “If someone brings them up and we can verify them certainly we’re going to take a look and fix them.”
Norman said the athletes should have come to him before airing their concerns in a television news report.
“That was kind of the frustrating part for me. What are they doing telling KSL that I’m in violation of ADA things when they decided to just tell me about it after the interview,” he said. “We are working with the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation as well as the international governing body, to help showcase adaptive and hopefully someday Paralympic bobsled. So what would the point be of trying to kill it at the same time at our venue?”