''It showed that detailed planning had taken place, the plans were followed, which resulted in a very smooth operation of the Games,'' said Frank Joklik, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake City Games organizing committee (SLOC).

''In every way we have been very much impressed,'' he told a news conference, citing support facilities, infrastructure and services such as ''unobtrusive'' security, underpinning the operation of the Games.

''I just couldn't find anything of substance that is worth reporting where I would say this could have been done better,'' he said.

Joklik said transportation management was ''tremendous'' given that bad weather wreaked havoc on the games schedule and that Salt Lake City will try to emulate the Nagano Games organizers' flexibility.

Salt Lake City will strive to be ''as good hosts for the world as'' Nagano, he said.

Joklik said he favors adding women's events in bobsleigh and ski jump to the 2002 Games and introducing skeleton, in which athletes race down on a luge track head first, as a new sport at Salt Lake City.

''We will accommodate whatever is possible within our means. We are certainly sympathetic to the idea that new sports are added,'' he said.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Juan Antonio Samaranch said in Nagano recently that he does not foresee the addition of new sports in the next Winter Games.

As for facilities, Joklik said the athletes village, accommodation for an expected 6,000 journalists, the stadium for the opening ceremony and support facilities for the cross country and biathlon events have yet to be built.

The speed skating oval will be expanded and turned into an enclosed arena, expected to be ready 12 months before the Games, he said, adding ''It may not be of the same splendor that the M-Wave (speed skating arena) in Nagano.'' (Kyodo News)