Many high-profile people, among them President Bush, have carried the torch as it makes its way to Utah. And once it gets to Arches National Park on Feb. 4, prominent Utahns including Karl Malone and Jon Huntsman Sr. will have a chance to add “Olympic Torchbearer” to their long lists of accomplishments.
However, the privilege of bearing the torch is not limited to high-profile citizens. In fact, the student sitting next to you in class could be one of a few U students proudly running the torch through downtown Salt Lake just before it reaches Rice-Eccles Stadium and the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 8.
Tiffany Barnes
One of these few, Tiffany Barnes, a U sophomore, will be featured this month in Utah Health Magazine. She was chosen out of more than 210,000 nominees for inspiring others to greater achievement and motivating them by encountering and overcoming adversity.
When Barnes first spoke before an audience, she realized something extraordinary. “I noticed how much of a difference it made, how it opened people’s eyes,” she said in a previous interview.
She has made speeches ever since. She talks about success, about overcoming obstacles and about abuse, something that plagued her youth. She wants to become a professional motivational speaker.
“It’s a natural high. I can’t explain the feeling I get,” Barnes said.
Barnes was notified by mail that she had been selected to carry the torch once it reaches Salt Lake.
It’s the sort of thing you could tell your grandchildren about, she said, noting she will even have proof.
“What I think is cool is you get to keep the actual torch,” she said.
Though at the time, she didn’t know who submitted the short essay nominating her, “I have my suspicions,” she said.
Her own story is, not surprisingly, the stuff of inspirational speeches. At the age of 13, Barnes was on her own.
“My stepdad made my mom choose between us and she chose him,” she said. The ultimatum sprang from abuse Barnes suffered at his hands.
After a yard sale that sold most of her things, Barnes boarded a bus headed to Logan and her father. At a friend’s urging, she later moved in with the friend’s family.
During this time, Barnes suffered from anorexia and felt suicidal.
“Once I could legally hold a job, I moved out,” she said.
Multiple part-time jobs saw her through high school. “Waiting tables kept me afloat,” she said. “I had money right then.”
In high school, Barnes joined a club and, through it, became involved in a speech competition. Abuse was the topic she chose to present?it was her first experience speaking.
Barnes is also working on a book about her life and has found a publisher.
“At first it was something in the back of my mind,” she said.
Motivational people have popped up in her life?the friend who offered encouragement and brought Barnes to live with her family and the high school teacher who advised the club.
“She saw my situation,” Barnes said of the teacher. “She wanted to help me at the point when I was suicidal and anorexic.
“I believe everybody just kind of has a candle inside them,” she said. That light can spread from person to person, like a chain reaction.
With her day to carry the torch only a week away, Barnes still does not know exactly where she will actually run. “I know it’s in the downtown area [and] I’ve heard rumors that they don’t actually send the outfits out until the day before you run, which is kind of scary because what if there is a problem with the mail?” she asked.
Dain LaRoche
While Barnes is worried about receiving the official uniform, Dain LaRoche, another U student to carry the torch, would just like to be able to let friends and family know where to watch for him.
“I still don’t have the uniform or final confirmation letter,” LaRoche said, but he expects to hear by the end of this week.
As an athlete, however, LaRoche will be ready to run his one-fifth of a mile with the flame no matter where it is.
LaRoche has been cross country skiing since the age of four. He is no stranger to winter sports, nor to the Olympics or the athletes who compete.
After racing cross country and studying kinesiology at the University of New Hampshire, LaRoche, originally from Vermont, went to work with the U.S. Biathlon team and the U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Science and Technology in Lake Placid, N.Y.
After one summer with them, working as an exercise physiologist, LaRoche went to the University of Massachusetts where he received his master’s In exercise physiology.
In 1998, LaRoche came to the U to pursue a doctorate in that same field. He currently works at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH) in Murray, which is the official sports science and medicine provider for U.S. skiing and speed skating.
“In the past couple of years, we have worked with athletes in speed skating, snowboarding, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, biathlon, skeleton, luge and bobsled,” LaRoche said. At TOSH, they test such things as aerobic capacity in athletes and how well they have adapted to the altitude in Utah.
LaRoche augments his academic research by continuing to participate in cross-country racing and biathlon events. He has coached biathlon junior development teams for five years and even coached the Utah program the first year he was here.
With the Winter Olympics coming to Utah, LaRoche said, “I had good motivation to get ready for the Olympic trials this year.”
However, the pressures of finishing up his doctorate and working with Olympic athletes forced LaRoche to take the year off from racing.
“I wouldn’t have made it, though,” he said. “I know where I stand [in relation to other Olympic athletes] but it’s just fun to race.”
LaRoche’s dedication to the pursuit of excellence in academics, as well as athletically, embodies the inspirational spirit of the Olympics, one of the criteria by which torchbearers were selected.
“I think there are many people more deserving than I,” LaRoche said. “But I feel privileged to have the opportunity.”
Wynne Parry also contributed to this story.