Four-time Olympic speedskater Catherine Raney Norman sees the more than $200 million in contributions she’s already helped raise for the 2034 Winter Games in Utah as an example of what sets the state apart.
“It showcases what makes Utah special. We don’t just host events here. We use them as a chance to lift ourselves collectively,” she said during the closing keynote speech at Monday’s Utah Business Forward Conference in Salt Lake City, hosted by Utah Business magazine.
Known as Podium34, the first of its kind philanthropic campaign ensures Utah’s next Olympics can “create a lasting impact,” said Raney Norman, vice president of development and athlete relations for the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The contributions pledged by individuals and foundations with Utah ties are funding the early years of the organizing committee’s efforts to put together what will be a $4 billion event expected to be paid for entirely from private sources, including the sale of sponsorships.
Just don’t look for a repeat of the 2002 Winter Games, even though nearly all of the same competition venues will be reused. Not having to build new facilities allows the focus to shift to optimizing new opportunities, she said.
“The work ahead isn’t about recreating 2002. It’s about reimagining what’s possible when an entire state unites around purpose, innovation and legacy. Podium34 is a reflection of that spirit,” Raney Norman said.
The money being raised is “redefining what’s possible” when it comes to promoting sport, mental health, volunteerism, arts and culture, and belonging, even before the Winter Games begin, she said.
“We’re building our living legacy now. That doesn’t happen anywhere (else). It happens here,” Raney Norman said, because of the “business and philanthropic leaders that recognize that this is an opportunity unlike any other.”
They share the same “fire and passion” she described feeling for skating from an early age, recalling how watching on TV as Team USA marched into the Opening Ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, ignited her Olympic dreams.
For Utah businesses big and small, the years between now and 2034 are full of potential, Raney Norman said, especially when the world’s attention turns to the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles that mark the return of the Olympics to the United States for the first time since 2002.
Such milestones can be used “to tell our story, build the relationships and show the world what makes our state and businesses so exceptional,” she said, including “the values that make us a model of resilience and innovation and possibility.”
When Utah hosts in 2034, “the energy of those weeks will ripple through every sector of business,” Raney Norman said. “Every Utah business that touches that moment will play a role in how the world will remember us.”
The Olympics and the Paralympics for athletes with disabilities that follow are anticipated to have a $6.6 billion economic impact, according to a study released last year by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
But the value of the work going into the several-week spectacle will last long after, Raney Norman said. “We’re creating the runway, we’re creating the foundation, the steady, unseen work that will shape the next generation.”