Salt Lake Community College’s Beyond the Podium program offers tuition-free education for athletes who don’t compete in traditional collegiate sports like football, basketball and soccer.
Chris Needham directs the program. He said it combines tuition waivers and scholarships with customized academic advising to help students balance demanding travel and training schedules.
“We look at most sports, and they have collegiate pathways through them that allows them to get an education and pursue their sport,” Needham said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Monday, Feb. 2. “But sports like speed skating and climbing and ski and snowboard don't necessarily have those pathways that take them to the Olympics, so we're looking to fill that gap.”
More than 50 athletes have come through the program. Currently 20 athletes are enrolled, and 15 of them will be representing Salt Lake Community College at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.
That places us in second place nationwide, just behind our other local school, the University of Utah,” he said.
One of those Olympics-bound athletes is halfpipe skier Hunter Hess. Originally from Bend, Oregon, Hess moved to Utah seven years ago to train. He’s studying business and said the opportunity for a free education with a flexible schedule provides future security in a sport with a short competitive window.
“The sacrifices are immense,” Hess said. “I've given up everything to be here. I moved to Utah to be here. I left my family when I was pretty young and without this program, I would have given up an education entirely. I think a lot of athletes resonate with that. We all put so much on the line, our physical health, our emotional health, our mental health, everything on the line to try to find this short window of success, and for the most part, the general public really only gets a brief look at that, which is during the Olympics.”
The donor-funded program has raised tens of thousands of dollars. Needham said the goal is to expand Beyond the Podium to support 100 athletes in the next few years — ensuring Utah remains a training ground not just for Olympians, but for their futures beyond competition.
