With the sun setting across Paris’ Stade de France stadium Saturday night, Parkite Grant Fisher was back in sixth place as the 5k runners rounded the final of 50 corners in their race. 

Gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway had broken away from the rest of the runners, running the final lap in 53.2 seconds and the final corner in 26.5 seconds. He would overcome his fourth-place disappointment from Tuesday, Aug. 6, finishing with a season’s best time of 13:13.66. 

Fisher wouldn’t let the door closing on the gold bring him down however, as he turned on the jets with his mind set on making history. 

While Fisher had already made some history this Olympics by becoming the third-ever U.S. 10K medalist Aug. 2, there was more on the line, the chance to become the first-ever U.S. man to double-podium the two distance events. 

Fisher moved to the outside third lane, passing the fourth and fifth place finishers with his final burst of energy. With only a few feet to the finish line, he saw he had secured the second bronze and tossed out his arms in elation. 

Fisher had the same shocked smile as when he won his first bronze. He took another lap around the trademark light purple track with the American flag draped over his shoulders. 

Fisher’s move to Park City had paid off on the grandest world stage.

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Parkite Grant Fisher is off to a good start in his quest for another Olympic medal this week, advancing to the Olympic 5,000-meter final on Saturday. 

Fisher needed to finish his round-one heat in the top eight of 19 runners; he finished fourth. 

Fisher turned in a time of 13:52.44 in the first round. The lead pack was tight, with runners one through nine all posting sub-13:52 times. Event-favorite Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway won Fisher’s second heat with a time of 13:51.59. 

Norway swept both 5,000-meter heats, with Gilje Narve Nordas winning heat one with a time of 14:08.16. 

Ingebrigtsen and Fisher are a few of the favorites in the event, especially with reigning Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 10,000-meter champion Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei pulling out Tuesday due to fatigue from the latter race, which finished last Friday. 

Only four runners from last Friday’s 10,000-meter race will be lacing their spikes up Saturday for the 5,000-meter final, including Fisher. 

Another medal for Fisher would create history, as he’d be the first American ever to double-podium the events at the same Games. He had a come-from-behind triumph last Friday, and Saturday he should have an even better shot. 

The U.S. has only had five 5,000-meter medals since the event joined the Olympic lineup in 1912. Bob Schul is the country’s only gold, back in Tokyo 1964. 

The world record in the 5,000-meter could also be in play for Fisher with a career day at 12:35.36, set in 2020 by Cheptegei. The Olympic record was set in 2008 in Beijing by Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele at 12:57.82. Fisher’s personal-best time is at 12:46.96 in the event. 

The winning time in Tokyo three years ago was 12:58.15. 

The final heat will go off at 11:50 a.m. MDT at the Stade de France just outside of Paris. It will be one of the Paris Games’ final events, with the closing ceremony being held Sunday night. The final can be live-streamed on NBC’s Peacock: peacocktv.com/sports/olympics. 

The Paris Games could be the 27-year-old Parkite’s last, given that distance runners typically have short careers. Many runners like Fisher end up moving onto the marathon event, which Bekele will be running Saturday.

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In mid-June, Don Rogers, The Park Record’s editor and publisher, and owners Matthew and Tatiana Prince gave me the green light to travel to Paris with the specific mission of covering the 2034 Winter Games announcement. 

This would be my 11^th Olympics, having spent 45 years in TV news, 28 of those with NBC News. Don and the Princes shared my belief that this event needed to be covered for the Wasatch Back. The second iteration of the Winter Olympics in Northern Utah would be a big deal to our community. Soldier Hollow’s impact in Wasatch County to Park City and to Snowbasin would be significant.

Small towns always feel the biggest effects of an Olympics, even if it is just a portion of the venues. By their very size, big cities can absorb the traffic, the intense security measures, the buildup of the infrastructure, the influx of fans, corporate sponsors, organizers and media companies. The Park City ridge is a natural home for so many Olympic venues — why did it take 22 years for the decision to return?

On Monday, July 22, much of the bid committee and many Olympic donors boarded Delta flight 2034. Yup, there was a flight number change to match the occasion. Salt Lake Airport held a send-off event where Gov. Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and bid committee CEO Fraser Bullock obliged my request for a proper departure photo on the tarmac with the plane in the background adorned with Olympic logos. 

We arrived in Paris Tuesday morning and quickly dashed off to a reception hosted by U.S. Ambassador to France Denise Campbell Bauer. There were 150+ supporters of the bid, most from Utah, attending in the ornate, 17^th century hotel near the embassy.

It would be a silly understatement to say the crowd was amped up for the possibility that after a good night’s sleep, the International Olympic Committee would have made the decision to have the winter Olympics return to northern Utah.

Wednesday morning, July 24, came quickly after the 10-hour, Salt Lake-to-Paris flight. The Utah delegation were dressed in snappy Olympic uniforms and took their seats in the large auditorium and listened to the 2030 French Alps Winter Olympic proposal. The IOC members quickly approved the bid. French President Emmanuel Macron served as the chief cheerleader for the enthusiastic French delegation, which meant his country will host two Olympics within six years.

Next up, the Utah delegation presented a polished and impassioned presentation to the IOC members touting the success of the 2002 games, the preservation of many Olympic venues as community focal points and the support of the state, the towns and the citizens.

But when it came time to open the presentation to questions from the committee members, the subject of doping took over for 45 minutes. The IOC insisted that all Olympic host organizations abide by the rules and decisions of the World Anti-doping Agency, essentially holding any bid hostage to making this commitment.

Twenty-three Chinese swimmers during the 2021 Tokyo games tested positive for banned substances, and later the athletes were deemed to be tainted by food contamination, according to the Chinese team.

This did not sit well with the U.S. Olympic team and members of Congress. The American investigation is ongoing, but Bullock and Cox were seriously between a rock and a hard place. They had to accept the terms of the contract demanding allegiance to the wishes of the World Anti-Doping Agency. 

When it came time to vote on Salt Lake City hosting, 83 IOC members voted yes, six no, and six abstained. IOC President Thomas Bach read the decision at 12:20 p.m. local time, and the 200+ Utah delegation went bonkers, jumping from their seats.

Shortly thereafter at a reception for the Utah delegation, I caught up with Park City Mayor Nann Worel. 

“The suspense was there, but I couldn’t imagine that we wouldn’t get the vote,” she said. 

The mayor went on to say that one of the first orders of business for the city and Summit County is to hire a person or firm to create a 10-year action plan. 

“The plan would consider every aspect of the games that you can imagine,” Worel said.

Eight-time Olympic medalist and short track speed skater Apolo Ohno was a part of the delegation, too, and the 2002 Games had been his first. 

“Utah has another opportunity to shine a spotlight on the greatest it has to offer, its natural beauty, the unique warmth of its people, the embrace of sport and patriotism,” he said.

Also attending in Paris was Parkite Chris Waddell, a seven-time Paralympian across two sports.

“It’s a great opportunity to do it again and to have the world come and enjoy what we have to offer,” he said. 

For kids who live along the Wasatch Back, he said, “It makes it personal. It makes it a reality that those dreams can come true.”

The next day I attended a pep rally hosted by a French youth sports organization aimed at inspiring Olympic spirit in young people with Olympic aspirations. Nine Utah kids attended, and the camaraderie with kids from 36 countries was impressive. 

Incoming Park City High School junior Victoria Rosales said of her first trip overseas, “I absolutely love it, when I leave I am going to be so sad, probably going to cry. I just love the diversity.”

Friday was the opening day for the 33^rd Olympics. The French organizing committee undertook the monstrous task of using four plus miles of the River Seine for the athlete procession. Teams floated down the river on all manner of crafts toward the Eiffel Tower. 

I ventured out in the morning to get a sense of Paris on this complicated day. I started my trek at the Notre Dame Cathedral and walked to the Arc de Triomphe, and then I got as close to the Eiffel Tower as I could. The French security team had closed access to the River Seine for four or five blocks on either side to only individuals with the right credentials or an opening ceremony ticket — that did not include me. I wondered: What would this level of security look like along the Wasatch Back? The police presence was unlike any I have ever seen, and I have been to some nasty places around the globe in my career.

The ticket-holder lines at 3 p.m. had hundreds, if not thousands, of people just waiting to get to their seats. The gates opened at 3:30 p.m. for a ceremony that started at 7:30 p.m.

As I walked along these long lines, I was impressed by the symphony of languages and the diversity of cultures. Everyone was sporting huge smiles and an upbeat mood. I thought to myself that these people are standing in the rain, just waiting to get to their seats, and they could not be happier. Perhaps this is what the Olympics can do to your soul. 

Presumably, some of the folks standing in the long lines were parents and friends of Olympic athletes. In 2021, the COVID games, families were not allowed to attend the delayed Tokyo games and were forced to watch their kids compete on television. I had a chance to meet with the family of mountain bike silver medalist Haley Batten on a rain-soaked day in Versailles. Mom Cathy, dad Patrick and brother Nash were so excited to see Haley compete in person. Cathy told me after the race about her daughter’s Olympic aspiration. “It is unreal,” she said. “Like, you know when you hear them talking about it when they’re young, and then it actually coming to fruition is unbelievable.”

Legendary alpine skier Lindsey Vonn has made it her mission to provide housing and transportation to families of Olympic athletes for the 2034 Utah games.

No doubt, I got caught up in the uplifting energy and optimism of Paris during the Olympics, the Olympic energy is so infectious. I look forward to attending the 2028 Los Angeles Games and hope to volunteer and take my grandkids to as many events as we can possibly muster. If I am still above ground in 2034, I hope to do the same then, too.

The post An Olympic week in Paris appeared first on Park Record.

It seemed likely by the fall of 2022 that Utah would be selected to host a second Winter Olympics, perhaps the Games of 2030 or those of four years later.

The blueprints for a Winter Olympics involved many existing facilities and there was overwhelming public support as a bid committee sought a Games.

Leaders in Park City and Summit County, though, wanted to learn about the community’s leanings regarding a second Games, holding a series of community conversations in person and online between September and November. The events, led by Mountain Mediation Center, drew nearly 140 people combined as the attendees spoke about hopes for a second Winter Olympics, as well as their concerns.

The exercise yielded a report in November of 2022 that now provides an intriguing look at the thinking of Parkites and people elsewhere in Summit County as they dwelled on the prospects of a Games.

The International Olympic Committee in July awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics to Utah, with the Park City area having a large role in the concept. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park are identified as competition venues for 2034 while the area will be critical to the transportation, security and celebration plans.

The award of the 2034 event was widely expected by the time of the IOC meetings in Paris on the eve of the Summer Olympics in the French capital. Park City and Summit County will shortly shift from the bid process to the planning for the Games. City Hall and the County Courthouse will with near certainty gather more public input about the Games in coming months, but the conversations in 2022 provide at least a benchmark of sorts illustrating the range of opinions about a Games.

Much of the input that was gathered in 2022 seems to remain relevant today, with many of the topics raised during the conversations being broad in nature and touching on issues that leaders are aware must be addressed during the upcoming Olympic work. There were comments about the Winter Olympics as an event, but there was also input, perhaps more telling, about the potential impact on the community of a second Games. There were also comments that reflected the current state of Park City as attendees appeared to begin linking community challenges of today and a future Games.

Some spoke about what they saw as the losing of character of the community, such as Park City no longer being a small town, a ski town or a historic town. There were worries about the possibility of a worsening disparity between socioeconomic classes with a second Games, the impacts on seniors and minorities and how the housing situation, already difficult for rank-and-file workers, could be influenced.

But others saw a second Games as something that could build pride in the community, provide monies for a range of improvements, inspire young athletes and further the area’s environmental efforts.

Concerns raised during the community conversations, as presented without names attached in the Mountain Mediation Center’s report in November of 2022, included:

• “Government will overlook the needs of the community in favor of growth/economics.”

• “Focus on making money, development, and growth hurts the community.”

• “Those who come will only be focused on business/money and not on community values.”

• “Developers, resorts, & realtors are the only ones who will receive benefits.”

• “How do we show equity and inclusion as we plan for the Games?”

• “Are the Games transactional or inspirational?”

• “What can be done now to ensure we will still have a winter for the Olympics?”

• “Locals with long-term housing needs will be kicked out in favor of short-term rental profits.”

• “Building athletic infrastructure to meet Olympic needs, but not community needs.”

• “Is the transportation infrastructure necessary for the Games the same infrastructure the community needs post-event?”

Some of the hopes that were raised during the community conversations, also as presented in the Mountain Mediation Center report:

• “Build community pride & bring the community together.”

• “Opportunity to engage with different cultures and learn from them.”

• “Many residents volunteered for/worked for/participated in the 2002 Olympics and have remained in Summit County.”

• “Funding can be put to the best use … used to build structures for the Olympics that can later become affordable housing.”

• “Bring in money and attention.”

• “Increase/attract diversity.”

• “Planning for an Olympics will be a catalyst for a greener Utah.”

• “Inspire the next generation of athletes.”

• “Improve transportation between Salt Lake City and Park City.”

• “Opportunity to increase sustainable transportation.”

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PARIS — Six young Utah athletes appeared alongside hundreds of other young athletes on the grassy Le Jardin d’Acclimatation, Paris’ oldest park, for the Sport dans la Ville’s Festival 24.

The event formalized a partnership between the French youth group Sport dans le Ville and the Utah bid committee and included speeches from Utah first lady Abby Cox, Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith and Lindsey Vonn.

Over 500 youths from 36 nations gathered in a pep rally-like atmosphere, which the organizers called a celebration of Olympic values.

On hand from the USA delegation were Lindsey Vonn, legendary alpine skier; Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and first lady Abby Cox; Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall; Fraser Bullock, CEO of the SLC-Utah 2034 bid committee; Olympic speedskater Derek Para; Brittani Coury, Paralympic snowboarder; Paralympian Chris Waddell; Jimmer Fredette, Paris 2024 Olympic basketball player; Kaysha Love, Olympic medalist in the bobsled; and Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz and the NHL Utah Hockey Club.

Young Utah athletes from Utah also attended, including Orson Colby Luge, Riverton; Kate Pressgrove, a figure skater, Heber; Victoria Rosales, a skier, Park City; Tyson Adamson, a golfer, Lehi; Harun Ahmed, basketball player, West High School; Ellie Finlinson, a soccer player and journalist, Moroni; Jazmin Solis, a tennis player, Mount Pleasant; and Raymond Soto, Junior ROTC member, West High School.

The trip was the first time being overseas for Finlinson, Solis and Soto, and it was Ahmed’s first time flying. 

A small marching band played spirited music and got the 500-strong crowd in a festive mood before the speeches began. Utah first lady Abby Cox championed sports activities as a way to bring people together and break down political and geographic boundaries.

“Sport can be a catalyst to energize communities and foster positive connections,” the first lady said. “That’s what I see in these young ambassadors from Utah.”

Park City High school student Victoria Rosales said she has had an inspiring trip to France.

“I absolutely love it,” Rosales said. “When I leave, I am going to be so sad. I’m probably going to cry. I am going to miss everybody. I just love the diversity so much.” 

Rosales said she made many new friends from Germany, Poland, Pakistan, Brazil and Italy. She got a chance to try wheelchair basketball. That was “pretty cool,” she said.

Olympian Derek Para said the rally was energizing. 

“I think sports are very unique. My life has been 100% guided by my time in sports,” Para said. “I don’t know where I would have been if I hadn’t gotten into roller skating as a young child. There was crime, corruption and violence in my neighborhood in southern California. Sports saved my life. I.t brought me into a new arena. … It taught me to be a better citizen of this world, a better resident of the communities I was in and making great relationships. If we can teach the blending of our cultures, in our athletes and kids at a young age, I hope we can grow up in a better place, more easily acceptable to change and to working with each other.”

The group leader and chaperone is Delegation Leader Chief Sara Bowles, of Herriman, who is also an administrator for U.S. Speedskating. She said one of the goals for the trip was to unite kids through sport and offer a chance to travel and meet kids from other parts of the world who would not have that opportunity.

A private donor funded the trip.

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PARIS — Now that the International Olympic Committee has confirmed Salt Lake City will host the 2034 Olympic Games, Utah, delegates to Paris can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s really happening.

Now the group is taking a victory lap after landing the bid.

At the post-award luncheon with athletes, donors, elected officials and the like, Gov. Spencer Cox told the 200-plus in the room that in 2002, Utah needed the Olympics, but in 2034, the Olympics need Utah. 

Later in the afternoon press conference, he elaborated by saying that the 2002 games provided Olympic and community infrastructure along with community pride as a coming-out party for the state. For the 2034 games, the governor hopes that the preparation, and ultimately the Games themselves, will serve as a bonding project for all Utahns during what Cox described as fractured times.

Park City Mayor Nann Worel said the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games’ presentation to the IOC had her “choked up a lot.” 

“I saw Park City just framed there on the screen, and I thought, ‘I’m so incredibly proud of our state and our city,'” Worel said. 

Of course, there’s a lot to be done. Worel said she’s ready to start taking concrete steps now that it’s official.

“We have a press release ready to go out in conjunction with the chamber in Summit County, as well as Park City Mountain and Deer Valley, announcing that we’re going to go out for a (request for proposal) to hire a person or a firm to do a 10-year action plan,” Worel said. 

Part of that plan will include planning for 2035, too, Worel said. 

“(The Olympics are) only going to be two weeks,” Worel said. “So let’s build for 2035 and beyond and know that that’s going to be part of our Olympic preparation.” 

Park City Councilor Bill Ciraco said he felt moved by the committee’s presentation to the IOC. 

“You could say that there was an authentic genuine emotion, just on everybody’s part,” Ciraco said. 

He praised the delegation’s speeches, calling the governor’s speech “presidential” and saying Fraser Bullock, CEO of SLC-Utah 2034, did a fantastic job. 

Lindsey Vonn’s support was super helpful, too, Ciraco said.

“I think what was even more moving was the genuine emotion that she displayed during her presentation when she talked about the importance of family, and how that’s a focus of this, of the Utah bid, to make sure that this (is an Olympics) where the families participate to the same degree that the athletes do.”

Eight-time short track speed skating medalist in the Winter Olympics Apolo Ohno agreed that the awarding was an emotional time.

“Salt Lake City in 2002 was my first Olympic debut,” Ohno said. “The state of Utah and Salt Lake City and Park City, the people, have been incredible to me, to speed skating, the Olympic movement, and its impact. Those moments in Salt Lake City continue to impact my personal life in an extremely positive way.” 

“The secret is fully out about the special place of Utah,” Ohno said. 

He acknowledged that the Olympics are an expensive and potentially risky commercial for the place that hosts them. It’s not an easy decision to do so.

“If you look around the room, many of these people who are here, they don’t need to put that on the line and (take) that risk,” Ohno said. “But they’re willing to do that, and they’re all working together. … That’s a unique aspect of Utah: It still has the small-town feel, but it’s a very big place.”

Ohno emphasized that with nearly 10 years to go, the state’s challenge of fostering sustainable growth is hard to fathom. 

“There’s millions of people who are not Olympic athletes who live and call Utah home,” Ohno said. “And so the call upon the combination of receiving the Games, the stewardship of the Olympic movement, and then also making sure that people can give back to the communities, the grassroots level, how does this impact people by hosting the Games? Not only the volunteers and the kids who are watching at home, but the small businesses, the mom and pop, the corporations that call it home, the families that live there.”

A guiding principle might be to think about the next generation, Ohno said. 

The post ‘Choked up a lot’; Utah delegates to Paris celebrate after successful bid for 2034 Games appeared first on Park Record.

Joyous cries reverberated through Washington Square under a twilight sky early Wednesday as Utahns celebrated the return of the Winter Olympics. 

Neither veteran participants, aspiring athletes nor winter sport newcomers were immune from the anticipation as around 2,000 people gathered outside the Salt Lake City and County Building to witness the official announcement. The festive, communal atmosphere was reminiscent of two decades ago, when a diverse crowd came to the Wasatch Back to experience the thrill of the Games.

Despite the early hour, only a few attendees were wearing their jammies. Most were adorned in red, white and blue or Team USA apparel, while others showed off their vintage pins and iconic Roots Berets from the 2002 Games. 

“The whole world came to our little place,” said Taylorsville resident Angela Rotzler.

She worked the event back then, assigned to the parking division. Rotzler would use her free time to watch the competitions, favoring hockey and curling. She still remembers being enveloped by unique languages, cultures and people.

Awarding Salt Lake City-Utah the 2034 Winter Olympics gives Rotzler’s 12-year-old son, Andreas, the chance to be exposed to a similar environment. 

Kim Brunisholz has similar hopes for her 11-year-old daughter, a speed skater coached by Olympian Derek Para who has ambitions of competing in her hometown.

The Salt Lake City resident said she’s lived with the spirit of the Games since she was a kid. She’s attended two Olympics and volunteered during the 2002 competition while in college. Now, she tries to advocate for youth athletes.

Brunisholz said residents are lucky and blessed to live in a state that values and invests in winter sports legacy. Not only are the Olympics fun to be a part of, but the Games instill community pride, civic engagement and cultural exchange.

“The same energy is there. Maybe more,” she said.

Utahns stood in the park for over two hours to watch the official gathering, Celebrate 2034, unfold. 

The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games — including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Olympic alpine skier Lindsey Vonn — made their final pitch to the International Olympic Committee at 11 a.m. in Paris, or 3 a.m. local time. 

Several members of the IOC praised the presentation, saying they’re convinced Utah will deliver an excellent Winter Olympics. The crowd cheered at almost every mention of the Games’ return to the state.

The Salt Lake delegation anxiously grasped each other as they waited for the vote, euphoric to hear the news: The Winter Olympics are coming home.

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PARIS — After a big sendoff at Salt Lake International Airport Monday afternoon, most of the Utah delegation to the Games arrived in Paris on Tuesday morning facing a cloudy, drizzly French welcome.

For many on the 10-hour overnight flight, the morning was spent dashing to the historic 17^th century hotel George Marshall Center at the Hôtel de Talleyrand for a reception hosted by U.S. Ambassador to France Denise Campbell Bauer.

The 100-plus in attendance at the reception included bid committee members, Olympic donors, Olympic athletes, elected officials and family members. The leaders of the delegation, while addressing the gathered Utahns, stressed what a momentous day Wednesday will be, when it is nearly certain that the 2034 Winter Games will be awarded to Salt Lake City-Utah, which will be the fifth time the United States has hosted the Winter Games.

Another common theme in the speeches from Gov. Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and bid committee CEO Fraser Bullock was the extraordinary job they said the Olympic Legacy Foundation has done to preserve the key Olympic venues and provide these facilities as resources to the community for the past 22 years. Cox, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and Utah Speaker of the House Mike Schultz all stressed that these games will not use any taxpayer funds to finance the games.

The International Olympic Committee session gets started right way on Wednesday. The presenters for the Utah Team will be Cox; Mendenhall; Bullock; Dani Aravich, a biathalon paralympian from Salt Lake City; Lindsey Vonn, the Olympic champion skier from Park City; Catherine Raney Norman, the SLC-UT Chair and Olympic speed skater; and Gene Sykes, president of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

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Kate Pressgrove travels from Heber City to Park City every day for figure skate training, her routine for the past decade. But not this week.

Instead, the 15-year-old Olympic hopeful is commuting 5,000 miles as part of the official delegation presenting the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee bid to the International Olympic Committee. If all goes well, she could compete in her hometown in 2034.

Pressgrove left for Paris on Monday afternoon alongside fellow Youth Sports Alliance athletes luger Orson Colby, from Riverton, and speed skater Emma De Bock of Farmington as well as the Park City nonprofit’s executive director, Katie Fisher. 

The youth athletes will be there when members of the bid’s presentation team including Gov. Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and President and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games Fraser Bullock make the case for why Utah should host the 2034 Games just before the Summer Olympics begin. 

Officials seemed positive the designation was virtually assured — a testament to the community’s commitment to maintaining its winter sports legacy.

“One of the great things that the Olympics does, it brings community. People together under the umbrella of sport, and we’re inspired by these wonderful athletes in what they’ve done or what they will do,” Bullock said during a send-off event at the Salt Lake CIty International Airport. “When we look at the inspirational examples that they provide to us, how we can achieve more, it’s like we go back to ’02: light the fire within. They inspire us because we’ve seen, ‘Wow, they can do this. Maybe I can do something better.'”

Pressgrove’s mom, Lisa, said living in the Park City area allows her daughter to live her dreams each day. The teen started figure skating at the age of 2 and never stopped. However, the sport can be expensive with equipment, lessons, ice time and travel. 

Lisa, a single mother working as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse, learned about the Youth Sports Alliance, which started after the 2002 Games as a way to increase the number of children involved in winter sports, and its need-based Dare to Dream program designed to break down barriers to participating. 

The scholarship has helped the figure skater since she was 4, covering the cost of practicing with coaches on the ice for almost five hours at a time as well as the training spent off the rink. Pressgrove has since become a prodigy skater, but she’s also learned the importance of hard work, discipline and what it means to fail.

Traveling to Europe for the first time for the Summer Games will allow Pressgrove to witness talented athletes and experience unique cultures while surrounded by the genuine camaraderie of sportsmanship. 

“Our country, our world, right now desperately needs something to bring us together, and over the next two weeks we’re going to see that happen with sport bringing people together,” Cox said. “I’m excited to feel that (sense of community) again in Paris. But I can’t wait for Utah to host the Games again in 2034 so that we can show the world the very best of Utah, the very best of the United States of America.”

And when it comes time for Utah to welcome the world in 2034, the bid committee affirmed the state is ready and waiting with open arms for its moment.

Mendenhall said the infrastructure is there, the facilities are ready, and so are Utahns. She’s inspired by the legacy that’s lasted since 2002, but she said the state is also prepared to put a new foot forward and show how it’s changed since then.

Colby said the aspiring athletes will be ready, too. Kids between the ages of 8 and 18 who are learning winter sports right now will be around the prime age to compete in the Games, and it will be even more meaningful on their hometown turf. 

Pressgrove was initially hoping to compete in the upcoming 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. However, the minimum age to enter was raised from 15 to 17 following the Beijing Winter Games. Now, like her home state, the teen is eyeing either the 2030 or 2034 competition.

The award is expected to come on July 24. Lisa’s message to her jet-setting, aspiring Olympian was to “take every advantage” while in Paris.

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Park City is home to many Olympians. What’s different about Grant Fisher is he’s chasing gold in the Summer Games. 

The No. 1 runner at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter track events is headed to Paris after living and training in Park City since October.  

This is not the first time Fisher has punched his ticket to the Olympics: He competed in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, where he finished fifth in the 10,000 meter race. Two years after competing in Japan, Fisher nabbed the American records for the fastest 5,000 and 10,000 meters with times of 12:46.96 and 26:33.84, respectively. Last year, he added to his list of records by running a 7:25.47 in the 3,000 meter race. 

The bottom line is that since Tokyo, where he finished with a time of 27:46.39 and missed the podium by two spots in the 10,000, Grant Fisher has gotten faster.

In the past 10 months, his preparations for Paris have brought him here to the Wasatch Back. 

“When I made this move, I was 100% prepared to do everything alone,” Fisher said. After running for his dream school, Stanford, Fisher spent four years at the Bowerman Track Club. He said moving to Park City from Oregon was “a little scary” and a huge risk during an Olympic year. 

“Common knowledge in track is don’t change anything in the Olympic year,” the American record holder for the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races said. Before he knew he was going to move to Park City, Fisher had asked his high school coach, Mike Scannell, to train him again. 

“When I first asked him to coach me, I didn’t know I was going to move here,” Fisher said. “I didn’t know who I was going to train with, where I was going to have track access and gym access, and physio and massage and all these things, and the first piece I got in order was the coaching, and then all the other stuff was sorted out.” 

Fisher knew he wanted to live at altitude, a big benefit for a distance runner. He said he was looking at the main places people train at altitude, including Boulder, Colorado, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Park City, where Fisher had spent time before with his former track club. When he consulted Scannell about what the best option would be, the decision was left up to Fisher. 

“When I talked to Mike … he was like, ‘Look, you’ve been a professional for years. You pick the location, and we’ll make it work.’ So I picked here, and it’s been great,” he said.  

Park City has had more to offer him than altitude and access to facilities. 

“There’s a community aspect that has been fun,” he said, mentioning an unexpected new group of friends. While training at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Center of Excellence in Park City, he has been able to work out alongside athletes who have their sights set on the counterpart to the Games in the summer. 

“I would never hang out with skiers and snowboarders. I’m always around track runners,” Fisher said, describing how the intense peaks of his season are opposite from athletes who rely on snow or ice for their events. “It’s been cool getting to know them and having friends that aren’t runners and just a different perspective on training.”  

Besides the community he has formed with skiers and snowboarders, Fisher said there have been several familiar faces in and out of the area since he moved here and was staying with a friend last October.

“When I got up here, I got connected with a bunch of people in Salt Lake City, and I had tons of people to train with,” Fisher said.

This past week Fisher was joined for a run by Conner Mantz, who will be representing team USA in the men’s marathon race in Paris, as well as Matthew Centrowitz, who won gold in the 1,500 meter race at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. 

“I’ve never seen him happier,” Fisher’s girlfriend and occasional bike pacer, Sarah Walker said about his move to Park City and his current training setup. She said this year was a big year for him, and assembling the team around him in Park City shows how driven he is. 

Leading up to the final week stateside, Fisher was not focused on building fitness at this point in the season, but rather fine-tuning before the biggest races of this Olympic four-year cycle. 

Last Saturday Fisher, Scannell and Walker met at Olympus High School in the Salt Lake Valley for one final hard workout before leaving for Europe. Under a blazing sun and temperatures in the triple digits, Fisher endured what Scannell called a “sharpening workout.” 

“The interval length was fairly short. Today’s rest was fairly short, too, because we’re still looking forward to running fast when we’re tired,” Scannell said.

The kick at the end of the race is important to Fisher — it’s how he walked away with a first place finish at the Olympic Trials in Oregon in the 5,000 meter race. During part of the final lap, Abdihamid Nur was leading Fisher. In the final home stretch, Fisher passed Nur to take the lead and cross the finish line with a new meet record, breaking the one set by Galen Rupp in 2012.  

Training at Olympus was intentional to have slightly lower elevation and heat.

“We did it in the heat of the day because Paris is going to be hot,” Scannell said.

“It’s perfect prep,” Fisher said, “getting out and purposely being in hot conditions,” saying his workouts ranged from training in the valley, indoors on a treadmill with the heater cranked, and in a sauna to build his heat acclimation. 

The football athletes on the field that day may not have known who was running laps at the Olympus High School track with coach Scannell yelling things such as, “Tall like a machine, here we go!” The running community and those with eyes on the Paris Olympics know what Fisher’s presence means to Team USA, some describing this as one of the best chances an American has had to medal in a long distance track race in decades. The last American to win the 10,000 meter race was Billy Mills in 1964. 

The race for a medal won’t be a walk in the park. Fisher will be going up against runners such as Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, who won gold in the 5,000 and silver in the 10,000 at Tokyo. Scannell told The Los Angeles Times, “Maybe we are entering the stage where we’re in the conversation for a podium slot in Paris.” 

Fisher comes from a legacy of runners, his mom running at the University of Houston and his grandfather running at Washington State. His dad ran at Arizona State, alongside his son’s future high school and professional coach, Scannell.

But he said he feels more like he’s from a soccer family. His older sister grew up playing soccer, and his younger brother, Mark, is a professional soccer player for Tornoto FC II. Fisher himself only got into running for what he thought it could do for soccer fitness. 

Walker, who works at the National Ability Center, will be in attendance for all his races in Paris. The couple met while they were both running for Stanford.

“The Grant you meet now is the same Grant I met in college,” she said. She leaves at the end of the month and will get to spend some additional time in Europe with Fisher before starting a two-year master’s program at Tufts University in Boston in human factors engineering. 

The 27-year-old long-distance track athlete will be in search of breaking an Olympic medal drought within USA running, likely with the “infectious smile” the Bowerman Track Club said they would miss in their Instagram post announcing his departure last October.  

“What matters is what we do at the end of the race in three weeks,” Scannell told Fisher on the hot Olympus High School track. With Scannell on the bike and Fisher jogging alongside him for his cooldown run, the pair added to their long tally of laps they have accumulated together over the years.

Fisher will continue his race for the podium in Paris starting with the Men’s 10,000m final on Aug. 2 at 1:20 p.m. Park City time. He will compete again at round one of the 5,000m race Aug. 7 at 3:10 a.m. Park City time.

His is a painful sport. What compels him?

“I really enjoy the harsh accountability you get from running,” Fisher said.

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