NEW YORK CITY — Leaders of Utah’s 2034 Winter Games aren’t on the agenda of this week’s U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Team USA Media Summit in midtown Manhattan, but they’re here anyway.
Why? To show support for American athletes expected to compete in the 2026 Winter Games that begin next February in Milan-Cortina, Italy, and to get an up close look at the promotion of Team USA.
After all, the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be front and center when similar press conferences and roundtable discussions with U.S. athletes are held eight years from now.
“We have the opportunity to learn. We’ll be able to see this done for several Games before ours,” said the organizing committee’s president and executive chair, Fraser Bullock. He said Utah will be looking for ways to “maximize fan engagement, and spectator engagement for our Games.”
But the focus won’t be on Utah’s next Winter Games for a while. After the 2026 Winter Games in Italy, the attention will turn to another Olympics in the U.S.: the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
“It’s early,” Bullock said of what Utah organizers can do at this point. “We can certainly plan around concepts and objectives that we want to work on over time. But we recognize there is an element of patience in this.”
So Utah organizers will be in the background at the two-day summit, letting the spotlight stay on Team USA, where athletes like Olympic champion skier Lindsey Vonn are scheduled to talk about their expectations for next year’s Winter Games.
Vonn, who made a successful comeback from retirement last season for a chance at competing in what would be her fifth Olympics, is a member of the executive committee overseeing Utah’s 2034 Winter Games and played a key role in securing a second Olympics for the state.
She’s one of more than two dozen American athletes expected to represent their country at next year’s Olympics and Paralympics who are scheduled to participate at the summit. Many live and train in Utah, utilizing venues from the 2002 Winter Games set to be reused in 2034.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee leaders, who held their annual assembly in Utah just a month ago, are also holding a press conference about Milan-Cortina preparations, with NBC Sport’s Ahmed Fareed.
Comcast NBCUniversal announced a deal estimated to be worth $3 billion in March with the International Olympic Committee to extend the company’s U.S. media rights to include Utah’s 2034 Games as well as the 2036 Summer Games that have yet to be awarded.
Utah’s Olympic organizers plan to spend part of Wednesday at the NBC headquarters, including at a “Today” show segment marking 100 days until the Opening Ceremonies of the 2026 Winter Games.
There won’t be any formal visits with current domestic Olympic sponsors, since organizers aren’t able to start soliciting financial support outside of Utah contributors until after the LA Games, despite needing a total of $4 billion, all from private sources, to cover the cost of 2034.
For now, Utah’s organizing committee is able to pay staff and the bills for trips like this thanks to the more than $200 million recently pledged through 2034 by individuals and foundations with ties to the state.
Before returning to Utah, Bullock and others from the organizing committee including CEO Brad Wilson, a former Utah House speaker, will head to Washington, D.C. There, they’ll meet with members of the state’s congressional delegation and other political leaders.
The federal government oversees and helps pay for security at an Olympics in the United States, just as it does for Super Bowls and other big events. Utah organizers are also expected to seek federal funding to bring in buses and drivers for a spectator transportation system.