Two-time Olympic speedskater Casey Dawson credits his success to the chance to try out a wide range of sports growing up in Park City, an experience he told participants at the recent Sports Tourism Symposium is unique to Utah.
“I tried every single sport under the sun, and you don’t get that anywhere else in the United States,” Dawson said. “You can just drive up to the mountains, try Alpine skiing if you wanted. You can go to the Olympic Oval, try speedskating. Where else in the world can you do that?”
Utah was also the place that helped Dawson shine in his chosen sport, winning a silver medal at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, and a bronze medal at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
It was the access to venues used at the 2002 Winter Games but maintained since with state taxpayer help, like the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, that the 25-year-old Dawson said “kick-started” his speedskating career.
“I never thought I was going to be an Olympian,” Dawson said during a panel discussion about Utah’s journey to hosting the 2034 Winter Games at the annual symposium, held Wednesday outside America First Field in Sandy, the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium.
But he was able to find a way into that world thanks to organizations like the Youth Sports Alliance in Park City, a nonprofit that introduces kids to sports through after-school activities, and the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation that oversees the oval and other venues.
“I tried speedskating. I was terrible at it,” Dawson said. “But slowly, over the years, with the access to other Olympians inspiring me to take it to the next level, I was able to get on this path to be the skater I am today.”
Training close to home ‘the biggest blessing’ for this Olympian
For another Olympian on the panel, bobsledder Kaysha Love, 28, having access to a track at the Utah Olympic Park near Park City, which allows her to be close to her family in Herriman, “was really the biggest blessing that I could have asked.”
Love, recruited to try bobsled as a track and field standout at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, also praised what Utah offers. No place, she said, “has the facilities, the community, the amount of energy that is surrounded around sports.”
Having the 2034 Winter Games in their state means young Utahns can count on having “the outlets, the resources, the support, whether they’re just an athlete, a fan, a spectator a volunteer,” Love said.
“It’s going to be a core memory for them,” she said. “It’s going to make them want to continue to give back.”
What makes Utah’s approach to Olympic legacy different
Colin Hilton, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation’s president and CEO, told the symposium audience that the state ensured there would be benefits from the 2002 Winter Games by thinking ahead.
“We were, in the mid-’90s, not just thinking of holding a three-week sporting event in 2002, but what we would do after the Games with our Olympic and Paralympic venues,” Hilton said. Nearly all of the same venues are set to be used at the 2034 Winter Games.
The venues were always intended for recreational activities by the broader community as well as elite athlete training and competition, he said, helping to build strong public support for not just the facilities, but also bringing the Olympics back.
“I would like to believe the 2034 Games are motivating our youth population to try out these programs, maybe more than what we saw to leading up to ’02,” Hilton said, gaining life skills through sport that will stay with them.
While only a fraction of the program participants will go on to compete in an Olympics, he said it’s more important to “have pathways for our youth to have fun with their friends or to pursue their best ‘personal bests’ in a sport.”
