Hilton grew up in Western New York. Every morning as a kid, he hoped snow would cancel school so he could ski and play outside.
“I was a ski tech at a ski rental shop just outside of Kissing Bridge, a little hill in Western New York,” he said on KPCW's "Local News Hour" Wednesday. “I've always loved winter sport, but sport in general.”
He later served in key roles for the FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
And when Utah’s Winter Games team needed help from experienced people in 2002, Hilton headed to the Wasatch mountains and never left.
He ended up at the helm of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation after telling leadership more needed to be done to encourage locals to use the facilities.
“I guess I kept making those comments enough that they said, ‘Why don't you come and right the ship?’” he said. “I think the biggest influence that I recognized was a need to not just run facilities, but to run the programs in the facilities, and hire the coaches, the instructors, and do what we call a living legacy of active uses.”
The foundation’s facilities include the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway and the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns.
And the venues now get a lot of traffic. According to the foundation, the facilities attract over 500,000 visitors annually, generating more than $130 million each year.
The venues also support over 1,000 jobs, $78 million in GDP and $132 million in industry output.
After running the foundation for 19 years, Hilton is being recognized for his visionary leadership. He was presented with the S. J. Quinney Award Wednesday by Ski and Snow Sports Archives Board Chair Barbara Yamada.
