Five years ago, Kelly Skinner from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee started a collaboration with the eight Olympic winter sport national governing bodies, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation and the Olympic Regional Development Authority in Lake Placid.
The goal of the collaboration is to improve Team USA’s performance in major international competitions, including the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, French Alps in 2030, and Salt Lake City-Utah in 2034.
This year, leaders from each group in the collaboration met at Utah’s 2034 Olympic venues for the Winter Sport National Governing Body Conference. At the Utah Olympic Oval Thursday, July 17, Skinner said the goal is to make Team USA winter athletes shine.
“We want Team USA to be successful on that field of play, and there's a lot that it takes to get there, especially in a nation that is not naturally a winter sport nation. We're a summer sport nation,” he said.
There are eight national governing bodies for winter sports compared to 37 for summer sports.
Skinner said Utah created “hotbeds of opportunity” by preserving and using 2002 Olympic venues as well as inspiring the next generation of Olympians.
“The culture that's been created here in this state, in terms of how athletes are being introduced, kids are being introduced to the opportunities of winter sport, I haven't seen that anywhere,” Skinner said.
Aron McGuire, USA Bobsled & Skeleton CEO and National Governing Body Council vice chair, said a good example of this is Utah native Kaysha Love.
She competed in high school and then collegiate track and field when a coach introduced her to bobsled. Love quickly went on to become a world champion and McGuire said she couldn’t have done it without the Utah Olympic Park and Utah Olympic Oval facilities in Park City and Salt Lake City.
“In winter sport, we're limited with the facilities, and so to have these venues, the support teams that are in place are critical for the success of Team USA,” he said.
Olympic Legacy Foundation CEO Colin Hilton noted Utah’s facilities don’t need any major improvements before the 2034 Games, and that has been purposeful. The venues host national competitions and athletes and recreationists regularly use the facilities as well.
“We have a very rigorous schedule of capital improvements that we have been doing for the last 10 years, and we have our forecast for now through ‘34,” Hilton said.
He said the state helps with some improvements, but some venues, like ski resorts, fund upgrades on their own.
One capital improvement the group identified during its visit was the bobsled track at the Utah Olympic Park. Hilton said the roof and shading system needs to be redone before the 2029 Bobsled World Championships.
