Local Olympians share their thoughts on the return of the Winter Olympics to Salt Lake
Jul 24, 2024, 11:00 AM | Updated: 11:33 am
Deseret News racers run past the the Olympic Cauldron on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in downtown Salt Lake City. (Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)
(Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Following the news that Salt Lake City would host the 2034 Winter Olympics, local Olympians said they were excited.
Two-time Olympian and Utah resident Jared Goldberg told KSL NewsRadio that Utah was a perfect choice to host the Games.
“All the venues are already here and it’s a perfect place for the Olympics,” he said. “We love winter and we’ve got the greatest snow on Earth.”
Goldberg was 10 years old and a ski racer on Snowbird’s ski team when the Olympics were in town in 2002. He remembered going to some of the competitions.
“I was inspired, I had never seen such a big show … of ski racing. [I thought] ‘I can make it. Maybe I can do what these guys are doing,'” he said, adding, “It definitely inspired me to try to be a professional athlete.”
Bittersweet feelings about the Salt Lake Winter Olympics
Rosie Brennan is a two-time Olympian from Park City and she shared her excitement with Dave & Dujanovic.
“It’s bittersweet for me because I definitely will not be competing in 2034, that will be well past my prime,” Brennan said. “I was a spectator at the 2002 games in Salt Lake and so I think I’ll have to find some way to be involved in the next Salt Lake game as well. It’s just really really exciting to hear.”
Brennan was in seventh grade in 2002 and remembered taking three weeks off of school for the Winter Games.
“They were using all the schools as facilities in Park City.”
Brennan said she and her brother spent those three weeks watching events and trying to get autographs from competing athletes.
Similarly to Goldberg, Brennan said watching the 2002 Games had a big impact on her life, although it wasn’t what inspired her to become an Olympic athlete.
“I had actually decided I wanted to go to the Olympics before the 2002 Olympics, but I didn’t know what sport at that point,” Brennan said. “It wasn’t until after those Games that … I had the opportunity to try so many different sports because we had all those facilities then and we had all the programming and it was also accessible.”
