The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pledged a “significant financial donation” and use of church property and volunteers to support the 2034 Utah Olympics and Paralympic Games, a leader announced Tuesday morning in Milan.
Bishop Sean Douglas of the Presiding Bishopric made the announcement days shy of the opening ceremonies for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
In addition to a financial donation to support the Games, the church will allow access to church-owned real estate for use as an Olympic venue and medals plaza, the use of additional land for parking adjacent to proposed Olympic sites, and abundant volunteer support from the church’s multilingual membership, said Bishop Douglas.
“While this contribution of cash and real estate are important, what is beyond price are the hearts and the extraordinary commitment of the member volunteers who make this contribution complete and truly unique,” Bishop Douglas added. “A great portion of our members in Utah who volunteer have served and lived in nearly every part of the world. They have immersed themselves in the world’s diverse cultures from where the Olympians, spectators and their families will come from. They love the people from all corners of the earth, and they speak their languages. We will be excited to welcome everyone to the 2034 Games.”
Fraser Bullock, executive chair and president of the Olympic Winter Games Utah 2034, said the church’s support is vital to the success of the Utah Games.
“When we host the world for the Games, we need great partners,” he said. “We can’t do it alone. It’s so big, so complicated, that we need all the help we can get.”
Bullock said the church’s “significant financial donation” got the Olympic committee “up and running.”
Utah Olympic organizers don’t have commercial rights until 2029, limiting their ability to raise money. So the Olympic committee appealed to donors “and the church stepped up right at the beginning and said, ‘We want to make this donation.’”
Another significant donation is the downtown city block, known as Block 85, located between 200 and 300 West and North and South Temple streets.
As was the case during the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the property will be used as a medals plaza — where “the heart of our games will play out every night,” said Bullock.
Bullock said the church’s gift of the use of this important property “makes our games complete.”
“It really changes how people are going to be experiencing the Games when they come downtown,” he said. “We’re going to have Salt Lake Olympic Square — a nine block area that’s going to be pedestrian friendly, with no traffic — and the medals plaza will be right in the center of that."
The property will also be used for the Big Air freestyle skiing venue. “We are bringing sport to the people,” said Bullock of a venue held in the heart of the host city.
The state will “dress up” downtown Salt Lake City — maybe more elaborately and differently than in 2002, he said. “We don’t want to just repeat 2002. We’ve got great ideas of things that we can do that are going to make it really special.”
Following the press conference, questions about the church’s support came up during media interviews after Utah’s Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games made a formal presentation to the International Olympic Committee. One reporter from Reuters asked whether the church’s donation was mixing religion with the Olympics.
“That’s not what’s happening,” Bullock said, noting that the church is hoping to make the Games in Utah — the church’s international headquarters — the best they can be.
“We are not mixing religion and the Olympics. ... This isn’t about proselytizing or anything else,” Bullock said. “It’s about welcoming the world and (the church) going to help us do that.”
The Olympic Games unify the world, Bullock said. “That is a great theme of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — to bring unity to a divided world, to be supportive, to build bridges of understanding,” he said.
During his remarks, Bishop Douglas quoted a statement issued by the First Presidency in July of 2024, after the International Olympic Committee voted in Paris to award the 2034 Winter Games to Utah.
“We stand ready to support the 2034 Olympic Games in welcoming athletes, volunteers and visitors from around the world,” wrote the late President Russell M. Nelson and his counselors, President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring.
Recalling the feelings of “unity, peace and friendship” that characterized the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games, church leaders said they are “committed to efforts that make Salt Lake a host city that embodies values of service, cooperation, and mutual respect.”
The leaders also pledged, as “the home of the international headquarters of the Church,” to support Olympic organizers at both local and international levels to again welcome the world to Utah as 2034 draws near.
In addition, the late President Jeffrey R. Holland, who died on Dec. 27, 2025, and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles hosted Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, for a special visit to Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.
“No one will be more supportive of these Olympics than we will,” President Holland said. “We’re thrilled to contribute in any way we can. We want you to feel that there’s no more hospitable place in the United States — or on this planet — than you have here.”
Church leaders emphasized how valuable Utah’s spirit of voluntarism will be for the 2034 Games.
“Thank you for highlighting the volunteers,” Bach said during the visit. “This is one of the values we share with your church. It’s about unity. It’s about voluntarism. It’s about one global world. It’s about peace. Therefore, for me it’s no surprise we get along with each other.”
The 2002 Games had an unprecedented number of volunteers. BYU even suspended classes for two weeks so students could work as volunteers at the events, and church leaders sent a letter to congregations encouraging members to volunteer. And historically, the dropout rate for Olympic volunteers was 15-20%. The attrition rate for Salt Lake volunteers was less than 1%, according to the Deseret News.
Douglas said the 2034 Games will be a great opportunity to celebrate “the goodness of people.”
“We’re a family. We’re united, and the Games are unifying. And I think that in a world of so much commotion and so much division from time to time, this is a chance to pull together.”