As Utahn Gail Miller waited outside a Milan shopping mall Thursday to begin her leg of the 2026 Olympic torch relay for the 2026 Winter Games, a crowd gathered for a closer look at the sleek silver torch in her hands.
Miller, dressed in the white and orange track suit worn by the thousands of torch bearers responsible for transporting a flame ignited last November in Olympia, Greece, to the Opening Ceremony of the Milan Cortina Olympics, couldn’t stop smiling.
The co-founder of the Larry H. Miller Company and the chair of the family foundation that’s contributing $20 million to Utah’s 2034 Winter Games posed for dozens of photos, many taken by parents of wide-eyed children.
Then it was time for the flame to pass to her. Miller briskly walked through the mall with the burning torch as shoppers clapped, cheered and shouted “brava” before passing the flame to the next torch bearer.
“It was so emotional to know all those people were here, cheering on the same thing and knowing that I get to be part of it. They don’t even know who I am,” Miller told reporters afterward, but all were drawn to the torch.
Seeing the Olympic flame sparked “excitement for what’s coming, excitement to be a part of something bigger than they are,” she said. “They can be part of it by being here, by watching, by cheering, by participating.”
Miller, who participated in the torch relay held ahead of Utah’s first Winter Games in 2002, said she believes there will be even more interest in the torch relay when the state hosts again in 2034 than what’s been seen in Italy.
“I hope we’ll have more crowds than that. That was a big crowd, but that’s one thing we can make happen,” she said, adding that there’s eight years “to bring all this together. We can do a lot to bring people together, give them experiences to volunteer, to be a part of it.”
Miller helped kick off the Podium34 fundraising effort by the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games that now has logged some $250 million in contributions. Organizers are relying entirely on private sources of revenue to cover their $4 billion budget.
She is the last of five Podium34 contributors carrying the torch in Italy to promote the causes they want to see advanced by holding another Winter Games in Utah. For Miller, that’s using the Olympics and Paralympics that follow for athletes with disabilities to bring Utahns together.
That includes supporting the volunteer program as well as the nightly Medals Plaza celebrations started in 2002 and a new initiative to assist the families of athletes with Games-time housing and other needs first proposed by Olympic champion skier Lindsey Vonn.
Miller said she and other Podium34 “founding captains” are united behind making Utah’s 2034 Games successful. “We’re all in it together. We all want the same thing, and we’re willing to put our time and our money and our assets together to make that happen.”
Other Podium34 contributors
The first Podium34 founding captain to carry the torch was Spencer P. Eccles, who ran from Mandello del Lario to Abbadia Lariana (along the eastern shore of Lake Como) on Sunday.
“It really invokes the spirit into me about the Olympics and what it does,” he told KSL. “It inspires all of us.”
Being in Italy and participating in the torch run “has just reignited the flame inside of me,” Eccles said. “I wish I could help everybody feel that hope and that spirit of the Olympics. The Olympic flame creates hope — “hope for the future, hope for our children who are coming up.”
Dale O’Blia, an athlete running for Daniels Fund, carried the torch in Bergamo, which is northeast of Milano, on Monday.
“As an athlete this experience has meant the world to me,” he said after the torch run.
“It is truly amazing to be able to come out here and run the torch and help with the Olympics.”
A wrestler, O’Blia said sports have helped him “to be able to grow as a person” and taught him so many life lessons — including how to be a strong person and how to be disciplined in everything he does.
David Huntsman carried the torch in Paderno D’Adda, just north of Milano on Tuesday.
Huntsman told KSL that he was happy to accept an invitation from the Utah 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Committee to participate in the torch relay, so he could talk about mental health. “It’s not just about the Games, it’s not just about the competition, but it’s what’s left behind when the Games are over with,” he said.
A day later, Amy Garff — hoping to reinforce her family’s long-standing commitment to education — participated in Saronno, northeast of Milano.
“To be able to carry that flame and that torch was an unbelievable experience,” Garff said.
“The Italian people are so gracious and they are so fun. Their culture is beautiful and I love that they are ready to cheer on these athletes and to welcome the world. It just makes me so excited because I remember the Games of 2002 in Salt Lake City. I remember the feeling that was there. … It is a feeling that is here today. I can’t wait for people in Utah to feel this once again in 2034.”
‘The power of the flame’
Earlier Thursday, the organizing committee’s president and executive chair, Fraser Bullock, carried the torch through Milan’s Parco Ravizza along a narrow path barely wide enough for the police motorcycle escort.
Throngs of schoolchildren and university students poured out of nearby classrooms to join parkgoers in cheering on Bullock, who was part of a torch relay segment featuring the leaders of future Olympic Games.
One group of grade schoolers wore orange caps and stood together with a hand-painted banner, while others scrambled noisily for selfies. Seven-year-old Luce, though, quietly watched from atop the shoulders of her father, Gianluca Tresoldi.
Tresoldi said it was important to him that his daughter see the torch relay, even though he did not know who was carrying the flame. “Wow,” he said after being told that Fraser is heading up the next Winter Games in the United States.
Like Miller, Bullock posed for photo after photo while waiting for his turn to carry the flame to a nearby street amid shouts, whoops, applause and even honking car horns. He’d been part of a torch relay twice before, including as chief operating officer of Utah’s first Olympics, in 2002.
“That was unbelievable. You see the spirit of Italy. Look at everybody,” he said afterward, shouting, “Hello” to the crowd. When they responded with more cheers and applause, Bullock said. “Wow. Talk about the world coming together. We are one. We’re unified. ... Viva Italia.”
His takeaway for 2034? “Making sure that we can get the kids and youth out to see this and feel the power of the flame,” he said, adding, “There’s nothing like the power of the Games to inspire that unity and hope. I mean, I was blown away.”
