Countdown to the Salt Lake Olympics

DAYS UNTIL OPENING CEREMONY: 34.

OLYMPIC UPDATE: Salt Lake City officials are reconsidering their decision to deny demonstration permits to two protest groups during the Winter Games. The Utah Animal Rights Coalition and the Citizens Activist Network made their case to the mayor's chief of staff at a hearing Friday. A decision on the matter was not immediately reached. The city's special events coordinator originally refused the permit requests.

MARCH TO THE MEDALS: Brady Canfield and Tristan Gale won qualifying races Friday for the U.S. Olympic skeleton team. Canfield won the men's race with a combined two-heat time of 1 minute, 38.65 seconds. Gale won the women's race in 1:41.63.

CARRYING THE TORCH: The Olympic flame starts Saturday in Oak Brook, Ill., and visits Evanston and Highland Park before heading north to Wisconsin. It stops in Kenosha and Mount Pleasant.