A new Olympic center intended to be part of a global research network is in the works for the University of Utah.
What’s being called the Olympic Center for Societal Impact is being pitched as a research hub, focused on the impacts of hosting a major sporting event like Utah’s 2034 Winter Games in broad areas like the economy, climate change, sustainability, athlete health and ethics.
The proposal from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and other campus entities was recently endorsed by both the University of Utah’s Faculty Senate and Board of Trustees, and is headed to the Utah Board of Higher Education for final state approval, likely next month.
But it’s the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee that decides whether a center can join the network of academic research and studies centers around the world that have been adding to the “home of Olympic knowledge,” since the 1980s.
Currently, there are 85 centers in 28 countries recognized by the IOC. In the United States, just three universities have Olympic centers recognized by the IOC: Arizona State University, the University of Oregon and the United States Sports University in Alabama.
Utah’s Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, listed as an “external partner” for the university center, set up the initial video call between the university and the IOC about six months ago to discuss what it will take to gain recognition.
“It was encouraging,” said Natalie Gochnour, associate dean of the university’s David Eccles School of Business and director of the policy institute, which has done numerous studies about the economic impact of another Winter Games in Utah.
Gochnour, who will co-direct the new center with John Lin, scientific director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy and a professor of atmospheric sciences, said the campus has plenty to contribute.
“This is all part of a broader effort at the University of Utah to create societal impact. In sports, we have a lot to offer, as an Olympic city, as a member of the Big 12, the winter sports connections that are here,” she said, also citing sports medicine and other programs.
In 2034, the university is also set to house athletes and host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies at Rice-Eccles Stadium for the Olympics and Paralympics that follow for athletes with disabilities, just as it did for the 2002 Winter Games.
What the IOC says about a university Olympic center
The IOC acknowledged in a statement to the Deseret News that “discussions are taking place regarding the potential establishment of an Olympic Studies and Research Center at the University of Utah,” noting it is “an initiative driven at university level.”
Such centers “are not formally accredited by the IOC, but are recognized by the IOC Olympic Studies Center as centers actively engaged in Olympic studies,” the statement said, describing the work of the IOC center as coordinating the global academic network.
The formal application the university must submit will be expected to outline the new center’s activities, areas of expertise and institutional support and will be “assessed against established guidelines to ensure alignment with the objectives of the network,” according to the IOC statement.
It said the “IOC values the continued development of quality academic engagement with Olympic studies globally, including in the United States, where there is already a strong and active academic community in this field, supported by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.”
The university’s plans for the center don’t call for any initial investment, relying instead on the resources of the Gardner policy institute and the Wilkes Center, as well as several of the University of Utah’s departments, J. Willard Marriott Library and Tanner Humanities Center.
The Huntsman Mental Health Institute on campus has been added to that list of affiliated entities after a university trustee, Christena Huntsman Durham, questioned ahead of the board vote why it hadn’t been included.
“We have a whole hub around research on Olympic athletes,” said Huntsman Durham, the CEO of the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation that supports the mental health institute. She is also the director,executive vice president and vice chair of the Huntsman Family Foundation.
Gochnour said the center “wanted to be more explicit” about the mental health institute’s involvement. The proposed purpose of the center now includes “an emphasis on resiliency and well-being of athletes” because of the institute’s expertise, she said.
“It will be a pillar of our proposal (and) future center,” Gochnour said, adding that “there will be many more areas of research and expertise added over time. We call it a ‘research hub,’ which in academic parlance, speaks to the broad mission and cross currents of all research.”
Lin, who made the presentation about the center to the trustees, told them that having an Olympic center in a place that has hosted a Winter Games is “kind of a no brainer” for the IOC “and they’re very supportive. So I don’t see any barriers.”
He said it will offer “a lot of opportunities” for the U., adding “there’s been a surprising lack of U.S. centers.”
‘All in’ on the Olympics
University President Taylor Randall said at the trustees meeting that as the only university providing venues for what will be two Olympics, “we feel like this is an important investment in the enduring legacy of those Games and how they interacted with our campus.”
Randall said the new Olympic center is “Step 1 of a much broader Olympic strategy that we’ll be seeing in the coming year. We have to get going on this right now. I know it’s a few years away ... but we’ve got to get moving now.”
The university has a big role to play “to help us deliver the Games. They are all in,” Fraser Bullock, the organizing committee’s president and executive chair, told the Deseret News. “This is another manifestation of their support for the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”
Researchers will be able to collaborate with organizers “in the real world of hosting Games,” Bullock said. “We always know the U. has its independence of thinking. It always has. But being able to share in information ... elevates the thinking of both parties.”
Gochnour said the organizing committee is seen “as a huge partner to us in this vision.”
Asked about any potential conflict of interest, she said, “We do independent research. We’re driven by the data. I’ve only found them to be interested in evidence-based thinking. I don’t see that being a problem.”
Most of the 85 Olympic centers already recognized by the IOC in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North and South America, including the three in the United States, are not located where a previous Games has been held.
What’s happening at other U.S. Olympic centers?
The Olympic Studies Hub in the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon in Eugene was the first in the U.S. to become part of the network, in 2024. The Oregon center is also considered an “external partner” for the Utah’s proposal.
Yoav Dubinsky, operational director of the Oregon center, met with University of Utah officials about their efforts during his first visit to Salt Lake City in March. Dubinsky told the Deseret News he came to learn more about Utah’s Olympic history and plans.
“I think there are very few universities that are such significant stakeholders in hosting Olympic Games like the University of Utah is and the legacy of Salt Lake City 2002 is very evident around the football stadium and overall around the city,” he said.
The University of Oregon, Dubinsky said, “plays a different role in the Olympic ecosystem, mostly through track and field.” Eugene has been dubbed “TrackTown USA” due to hosting U.S. track and field Olympic trials and a World Athletics championship in 2022.
He said the schools share similarities “in the sense of the Olympic Movement being in the DNA of the universities, and that legacy, sustainability and impact of sports events including of Olympic Games are studied through multiple approaches and lenses on both campuses.”
That intersection could lead to future work together, Dubinsky said, describing the value of an Olympic center as being part of “the network of academic institutions and scholars studying and researching different areas related to the Olympic Movement.”
The University of Oregon is listed as an “external partner” to the University of Utah center, along with the 2034 Winter Games organizing committee, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation that owns and operates several venues, and the IOC.
Asked about that role, the Oregon marketing professor said Oregon’s “Studies Hub looks forward to finding future ways of collaborations, but it is too early to discuss or announce formal partnerships”.
He said he is “not officially or unofficially involved” in the Utah center.
It took the United States Sports University in Alabama more than a year to gain recognition from the IOC for its Olympic center, although Roch King, chair of sports coaching at the small private school, said the process has since become more streamlined.
King said the Center for the Study of Olympic Sport & Culture was established in 2023 by faculty members with a shared interest in Olympic topics. Being part of the IOC’s network, he said, helps attract attention to the work being done by the faculty.
“Even though you can’t stamp the Olympic rings on anything, everyone acknowledges these are the people on the list of most prominent scholars in Olympic studies,” King said, adding that students also benefit from the connection to centers around the world.
“One of the reasons that the centers in the United States are so important is because of how decentralized our international or elite sports system is,” he said. “It’s different than almost every other country.”
The Olympics, King said, “touches every aspect of society, if you know where to look.”