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With mere days remaining in the countdown to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, it’s worth taking a quick look ahead to when the United States hosts the 2034 Games.
Most events will be held in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah — which also hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. A delegation from the organizing committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games is expected to be in Italy as part of an observers program that will focus on transportation, venue logistics, public safety, security and mountain operations, according to Utah news site TownLift.com.
The itinerary includes site visits, workshops and behind-the-scenes meetings with Olympic organizers and host communities. All told, more than 80 elected officials and civic leaders from the state are expected to participate.
“As Mayor, a member of the 2034 Steering Committee and Vice Chair of the Olympic Host Communities Committee, it’s my responsibility to learn directly from communities hosting the Games,” Park City Mayor Ryan Dickey told the site. “That firsthand experience is essential to making smart, disciplined decisions at home as we prepare for 2034.”
“The IOC’s Observers Program gives community and resort leaders direct, practical insight into how the Games operate in real time,” added Kelsey Berg, Utah 2034’s director of government relations. “Participants engage with organizers, explore venue communities firsthand and bring those lessons back to Utah.”
This year’s Winter Olympics run from Feb. 6-22, with the Paralympics slated for March 6-15.
Utah was awarded the 2034 Games in 2024 and unveiled the Utah 2034 name and logo late last year, when Gov. Spencer Cox declared that the Games “are going to unify the world, but they’re also going to unify our state,” he said. “The focus isn’t on just 100 countries that are going to be coming here; the focus is also on those 29 counties all across the state. This isn’t just the Salt Lake Olympics, it’s not just the Wasatch Front Olympics, this is our Olympics. It is all of us together.”
The legacy of the 2002 Games lives on, with many of the same venues slated to host events in 2034. But Utah 2034 organizers don’t want to “simply cut and paste,” USA Today reports. “So organizers are looking for ways to expand what worked nearly 25 years ago. Their signature idea is a family village. It will be located near the athlete village and offer housing, transportation, assistance with tickets and even translators for athletes’ loved ones. … Most athletes, Summer and Winter, do not secure a spot on the Olympic team until a month or so before the Games. That means their families are either booking flights and hotels in advance and hoping they don’t need to cancel, or they’re scrambling last minute to make travel arrangements and find tickets.”
The family village idea appears to be credited at least in part to Olympic Alpine skiing champion Lindsey Vonn, who is on the Utah 2034 organizing committee. “They asked me what I would like to change with the Olympic experience and the first thing I said was make it more accessible for the families,” Vonn told USA Today. “Without the families, the athletes don’t exist. I think one of our biggest selling points was the family village. It is special, and it should be that way in every single Olympics.”
Salt Lake City also is planning to host a free outdoor Team USA viewing party downtown for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, complete with large screens, live music, warming stations and food trucks. Each night will have a different theme to match the events taking place that day, according to organizers.
“Salt Lake City wants to host all of Team USA’s fans, family and friends to watch every single night of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milano Cortina right here outside of Washington Square,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall told KSL.com. “Whether you live in rural Utah, live in the state of Maine or Washington state, if you’re a Team USA fan who lives in Brazil — if you’re not heading to Italy ... you need to be here with us.”
One place winter sports fans don’t seem to be heading is a ski destination.
Low or no snowfall plagued ski resorts during the holiday season, as did “a continued drop in international guests due to the Trump administration’s tariffs and his negative rhetoric about their countries,” National Public Radio reported in December.
Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado underwent a different challenge for about two weeks when the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association went on strike at the same time many vacationers were looking to spend their New Year’s holiday on the slopes. The resort reopened the second weekend in January after resort officials and the ski patrol union reached an agreement over wage rates — leading to a $2-an-hour base pay increase and raises for senior ski patrollers.
“We know how truly difficult this has been for a great deal of people,” read a statement from the ski patrollers union. “For businesses, resort workers, community members, everyone, we appreciate your patience. This has been incredibly tough on us all. We happily look forward to serving this community as the Telluride Ski Patrol. Let it snow.”
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