Young athletes who are part of the Figure Skating Club of Park City, Park City Ski & Snowboard, Park City Ice Miners, Park City Speed Skating Club, Utah Olympic Park Skeleton & Bobsled, Wasatch Luge, and Wasatch Freestyle may be eligible for for the Youth Sports Alliance spring Stein Eriksen Dare to Dream Scholarships.
Scholarships are open to any athlete who trains with one of YSA’s seven member clubs and is under the age of 21. YSA Executive director Emily Fisher says the Stein Eriksen scholarships are need-based, and the spring scholarship period is geared toward athletes who had unplanned expenses this winter.
“This is specifically if an athlete in one of those seven member clubs qualifies for a competition that they can’t afford," Fisher says. "Something like a junior national, national championship, junior worlds, something like that that they didn’t expect. They’re so excited, but maybe they can’t afford, they can apply for a scholarship to go to those competitions.”
Scholarships are funded through YSA’s Stein Eriksen Endowment, which reached its funding goal of $2 million in 2018.
Past recipients of Stein Eriksen Scholarships include Beijing Olympians Ashley Farquharson, Brad Wilson, Casey Dawson, and Bubba Newby.
Fisher says with the costs associated with competing only going up as athletes progress through the ranks, YSA scholarships help athletes concentrate on sports instead of fundraising.
“All of these sports, obviously, to make it to the Olympics, get very expensive," she says. "These scholarships just allow them to really focus on pursuing their dreams and making it to that next level of competition. Just another way we try to support athletes all the way through the pipeline.”
The deadline for applications is April 1st and scholarship awards will be announced the week of April 15th. A link to apply can be found here.
