Orson Colby will join the around 100-person delegation going to Paris for the Utah Olympic Bid Committee’s final 2034 Winter Olympics bid presentation. He and two other young athletes are joining the delegation to amplify Utah’s focus on Olympic legacy and youth sports programs.
The International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission has had good things to say about Utah’s legacy youth sports programs created after the 2002 Olympics. They’ve said they want to see similar programs in other host countries. Colby, from Riverton, Utah, got his start in luge through those legacy programs.
At 11 years old, he was looking for an opportunity to earn a Boy Scouts of America merit badge related to physical fitness when his mom saw an advertisement for kids to try the luge.
“We saw a physical fitness aspect of it. And we could get that merit badge done and my mom being a mom, and she's like, ‘Oh, you also get a free T-shirt too,’” he said. “That's kind of became one of the most expensive T-shirts.”
A self-described adrenaline junkie, Colby said he felt a rush when he first tried the luge. His first time on the sled was down a road, but he was invited back another time to try the luge on ice.
“This is when it started to get real,” Colby said. “They start you down lower. And where they call it is the Olympic curve here in Park City, which is curve 12 there. And I started from there, and it went down the first time and I'm like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ It's this big adrenaline rush when you're going down.”
Colby now trains with the Wasatch Luge Club in Park City and has received scholarships from the Youth Sports Alliance. Now 18 years old, Colby has won national titles, and competed in the 2023 Youth A Continental Cups and the 2024 Youth Olympic Games in Korea.
While in Paris supporting Utah’s bid for 2034, Colby wants to express how the opportunities in the state have supported him.
“It's given me so many opportunities, especially the Youth Sports Alliance, there's a lot of things I don't think I could have done without them,” he said. “And then just the facility here is just so amazing.”
Colby is currently recovering from surgery. He recently tore his ACL and is working to regain his strength so he’s ready to compete at the Luge World Cup this fall. Part of his recovery training includes being consistent in the gym, but Colby said he’s also working on his luge start.
“The start in luge, it's the biggest part,” he said. “We're able to apply momentum and help us increase our speed down the track, especially if even a small mishap happens that start can help save you, especially 10s or 1000s of seconds down at the end of the track.”
Colby has Olympic aspirations and hopes he can compete in the 2034 Games in Utah.
“For me, it would be at a big advantage, because I started on this track,” he said. “I know this track a lot more than a lot of people from around the world, and even on my team, because those tracks you start on, and those tracks you've practiced the most on, you know the secrets to it, you know how to go faster down it.”
Utah’s Olympic delegation leaves for Paris on July 22. The final presentation and vote is July 24, or Pioneer Day.
