Some people have yet to watch the 2002 Winter Olympics. Others might not even know where the Oympics are being held.

But there are a few, like me, who have been facinated by the action taking place in Salt Lake City for four consecutive days now.

It all began with the opening ceremony Friday night – Native Indian dances, ice skaters shooting sparklers from their ankles and President Bush on a cell phone with an Olympian’s parents.

I thought my sudden facination would have ended there and could pass it off as boredom, but I have truly been intrigued by these Olympics throughout the weekend.

Why? Because I live in the Midwest, far away from snowcapped mountains. I haven’t even seen more than a few inches of snow all year. And the idea of downhill skiing over 60 m.p.h, luging head-first in the skeleton event or ski jumping almost 100 meters is facinating to me.

Figure skating is also quite popular in the winter games, but the graceful dancing doesn’t lend to the fear factor of flying down the bobsled hill.

What is even more astonishing is that many of the athletes taking medals this weekend have been under the age of 21. Take American Kelly Clark for example. Clark won America’s first gold medal in the games for her performance in the snowboard halfpipe – and she’s just 18-years-old.

The Winter Olympics consist of sports that I did not grow up around and have never participated in as a little kid. Sure, there’s little league games, swimming lessons and high school sports – and growing up in the Midwest, we can relate to the summer games. But learning to snowboard in the third grade and eventually becoming an Olympian is something that doesn’t often happen to someone in Illinois with fake snow.

The Midwest may not have many athletes in the winter Olympics, but the United States is certainly represented.

And even though our country hosts this year’s games, that doesn’t mean they’ll dominate them. That honor has typically been given to Europeans, with countries like Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands taking home the medals.

Austria currently leads the medal count with five, three of them bronze, but the U.S. is tied in second with Germany, winning three medals over the weekend. If America wins just 17 more medals in two weeks, the U.S. will set a new record.

Medals aside, there are still more events that haven’t even started yet. The women’s first round of the luge begins Tuesday along with the men’s moguls and ice hockey prelims.

There may not have been much snow in Charleston this winter, but there’s plenty in Utah.