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.