By JACK FARIS

As the world’s eyes focus on Salt Lake City and the Winter Olympics, no one who admires the competitive nature of the human spirit can fail to be inspired by these dedicated athletes who have made untold sacrifices in their quest for a gold medal.

But the gold medal is only a tangible symbol of those victorious moments that make sports history live forever in the hearts and minds of those who cherish the games as tests of human endurance, skill and determination.

Maybe there should be a Small-Business Olympics. The categories for competition are virtually endless and if there is one group of Americans who are familiar with staunch competition, it is that indomitable group of entrepreneurs who, day in and day out, find themselves up against massive obstacles and endless tests of their endurance.

Take Barbara Williams, for example. It wasn’t enough that she struggled mightily to overcome the daily business challenges to operate her Gettysburg, Pa., restaurant. No, thanks to big government, she found herself strapped unwillingly to a legal bobsled named Superfund that threatened to zoom her small business down a fast track to oblivion.

Sucked into the whirling vortex of federal environmental regulations that were crafted by Washington, D.C. bureaucrats and government lawyers, Williams was sued for $76,000 for legally disposing of restaurant trash years after she had sent such “deadly” items as chicken bones and potato scraps to a local landfill. Unfortunately for her, the landfill was declared to be a contaminated site under Superfund regulations. Large industrial polluters, using the regulations in an unintended fashion, sued her and hundreds of other small firms in an effort to pass along their cleanup costs.

But Williams would have none of it. Instead of giving up in the face of nearly overwhelming odds, she did what most successful small-business owners do when faced with competition. She got mad, she got busy and she got involved in NFIB’s effort to protect Main Street companies like hers against unfair laws.

This was not a sprint, it was a marathon. Over more than eight years, Williams testified before congressional committees, told her story on the pages of The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers and was the subject of a CBS 60 Minutes segment.

The end result? Barbara Williams won the small-business sector’s equivalent of a gold medal. When President Bush placed his signature on the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act in January, he honored all who compete against unfair government intervention.

The act exempts small businesses with 100 or fewer employees from liability under Superfund if the business’ disposal, like Barbara Williams’ Sunny Ray Restaurant, did not contribute significantly to the cleanup costs of the area.

Barbara Williams won’t be getting a gold medal for her defeating big government. There are no Olympic Games for small-business owners. But millions of American entrepreneurs owe her a debt of gratitude. When faced with an overwhelming challenge, she reached down deep inside and like a great athlete, gave what it took to win.

JACK FARIS is president of NFIB (the National Federation of Independent Business), the nation’s largest small-business advocacy group.