Figure skater-turned-speed skater Emma De Bock will join the around 100-person delegation going to Paris for the Utah Olympic Bid Committee’s final 2034 Winter Olympics bid presentation. She and two other young athletes are joining the delegation to amplify Utah’s focus on Olympic legacy and youth sports programs.
De Bock, a 15-year-old from Farmington, Utah, has been an active participant in Utah’s local sports programs created after the 2002 Olympics. De Bock trained as a figure skater for four years and said she thought it was her sport. But when her brother got into speed skating and suggested she try it as well, it felt like a better fit.
“I saw more opportunity in speed skating for me, since I'm, like, way taller than all the figure skating girls,” De Bock said. “But I must say, it was definitely a hard decision for me, because I never expected anything to happen like this.”
De Bock switched to speed skating in 2023 after Olympic champion and current sports director at the Utah Olympic Oval Derek Parra convinced her. With just one season in the sport, she finished fourth in the 500-meter race at the U.S. Open Junior Championships and is top in the nation in three distances in her age group.
“It's almost surreal, and I never knew I would accomplish this much in just one season, and I still have so much more to go for,” De Bock said.
She said the hardest thing to overcome in her skating career so far is fear and doubt. But Utah Bid Committee Chair Catherine Raney Norman, a four-time Olympic speed skater who was inducted into the U.S. Speed Skating Hall of Fame in 2018, is cheering De Bock on.
“I have my Fingers crossed that she might break a few of my old records in long track,” she said.
De Bock currently trains at the Utah Olympic Oval under Parra as part of an Olympic legacy program. She is working to compete in the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games.
When the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission toured Utah’s proposed Olympic venues in April, they really liked the state’s efforts to promote youth sports. The legacy of those efforts continues today, creating successful young athletes like De Bock.
