It was the middle of February of 2020 when the roster of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games was named during an event at the state Capitol.

Figures representing a range of backgrounds and industries were tapped to pursue a second Winter Olympics in the state. It was a high-profile assignment with Salt Lake City, Park City and the wider region appearing confident that another Games was possible.

Which edition would make the most sense, perhaps the Games of 2030 or those of four years later, was not clear. There was, however, hope, possibly even an expectation, that the Olympic flame would be lit again in the capital city.

One of the prominent Park City-area names called that day was Colin Hilton, a winter-sports executive who brought vast experience to the task. Hilton, who died at 58 on Aug. 21, was a veteran of the organizing committee that staged the 2002 Winter Olympics and spent the intervening years in important roles in the winter sports realm and in local government. He eventually became the president and CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, the organization that oversees the Utah Olympic Park, the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center and the Utah Olympic Oval.

Hilton during the event at the Capitol was appointed one of two vice-chairs of the board of directors, a post that helped ensure the Park City area was represented at the upper echelons of the bid hierarchy. Hilton, understanding the magnitude of the day, delivered remarks about the continued use of the competition venues from the 2002 Games. He credited elected officials, sports officials and businesspeople across the decades.

“From the Salt Lake Valley to the Heber Valley, from Ogden to Provo, we have figured out a way to find sustainable uses of these unique sport facilities. And not only kept them operating but having molded them into true assets in their communities,” Hilton said.

He spoke of the bidding that was looming for the Winter Olympic region, saying, “Our future Games will provide us an opportunity to align visionary goals of our state and local communities, and I look forward to joining together, rallying around a common cause and seeing what new successes we can achieve when we set our minds to it.”

The International Olympic Committee, a little more than four years later, awarded the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City, with the Park City area selected as one of the key locations.

It is difficult to grasp, or to overestimate, just how significant a figure Hilton was in Games circles in a state with a Winter Olympic past and future. The mere presence of the nationally recognizable, politically polished Mitt Romney as the leader of the 2002-era Salt Lake Organizing Committee overshadowed Hilton and everyone else involved in that group. And Hilton later did not command the name recognition of the gold-medal winners who hailed from Utah, even with some of them greatly benefiting from the facilities under the umbrella of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation he led.

But Hilton nonetheless would come to stand as a unique luminary in the field.

Hilton arrived at the Salt Lake Organizing Committee after serving in a role with the group that staged the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and, earlier, working for the organization that hosted the 1994 World Cup soccer tournament in the United States. It was precisely the sort of background that would lead someone to the 2002 Games and into the current era of the 2034 Winter Olympics.

There is hardly anyone in the state with the same level of understanding of the mechanics of the Games. As a speaker, he could seamlessly move between Winter Olympic eras and between global sporting events, explaining the anticipated similarities and differences. Hilton’s resume was unparalleled.

He directed the Salt Lake Organizing Committee operations in Park City and surrounding Summit County. It was a crucial position with the community’s pivotal role in the Games. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park were competition venues, and the community was critical to the transportation, security and celebration plans.

Hilton essentially was the organizing committee’s point person for the area. He worked with the leadership of Park City and Summit County, a host of other governmental institutions and the mountain resorts as the plans for the ultimately wildly successful Games were crafted. The events at the three competition venues were virtually sold out. Main Street provided the setting for a popular pedestrian-only celebration zone. The logistical plans, the most elaborate to date in the Park City area, essentially worked as designed.

“Quite frankly, we could have sold 40% more tickets to many of the events, maybe more. The demand was huge,” Hilton said in early 2003, as the organizing committee released the final report about the Games.

Hilton later worked for the Park City municipal government, overseeing the construction of the China Bridge garage expansion and the Quinn’s Junction recreation complex. He returned to the winter-sports field in 2006 and spent the rest of his career there.

It is unclear what sort of role Hilton would have played in the seven and a half remaining years of preparations for 2034. The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation duties alone would have kept him at the forefront of the work. His deep knowledge of the 2002 Games would have been vital to any exercises comparing or contrasting the plans of 24 years ago to those under consideration for 2034.

Prior to his death, it was hard to envision a scenario in which Hilton was not, in some capacity, integral to the effort.

The notion that the state could host a second Winter Olympics arose during the previous Games era, but the talk of that possibility seemed to become more prevalent at certain points over the decades. The start of each Winter Olympic year spurred at least some conversation of a future Games, as did the arrival of notable anniversaries of 2002.

In 2014, as the Games in Sochi, Russia, opened, Hilton was among those in Utah touting the idea of another Winter Olympics. He was a member of a Games exploratory committee and perhaps the 2026 event was a potential option, backers indicated then. Hilton at that time described the state’s Olympic facilities as having remained busy in the 12 years since 2002 and said Utah had the infrastructure needed for a Games.

“We have essentially served as a great example of an Olympic city that got it right,” Hilton said that February.

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The Anti-Gala garnered community support for the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation last week with its annual fundraiser, which supports the foundation’s scholarships and Healthy Communities program.

Between fire pit reunions and inner tubing down the ski jumps, supporters at the ninth annual Anti-Gala on Aug. 7 reflected on the foundation and the Utah Olympic Park as a place they see as both a springboard for Olympic dreams and an open playground where local kids can discover sports that can shape their futures.

“It’s just part of the community, it’s wonderful,” said Vanessa Conabee, a longtime local and former Nordic ski coach at Soldier Hollow. “They do so much for the town, too. The accessibility for people is insane. My kids grew up on the Nordic course.”

Conabee explained that the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, one of the foundation’s three local facilities, has been a staple of her family’s life for years. For Conabee, the foundation is a rare and valuable community organization for a town where skiing can otherwise be prohibitively expensive.

“Think about what you have to do today to go train at Park City Mountain or Snowbird. It’s very difficult. It’s very hard. And this gives a lot more access to training day and night. It’s great, especially since they’ve opened up the West Hill. That is huge,” said Stephen Balog, an alpine racer in the masters program, who trains weekly at the park.

The Balogs live in Sandy but make the trip to the Utah Olympic Park all year to train. As a masters racer, Stephen Balog said one of the highlights is sharing the hill with national teams and university athletes from around the world. The experience made the park a space where young and old athletes could see and learn from the best in the world on their local hill. 

“When the French alpine team was here, Stephen just loved watching them, because they’re watching their form and technique. It’s not only fun for the kids to see stuff like that, but also old folks love it,” said Kimberly, Stephen’s wife.

Greg Schmidt bears no personal connection to the facilities or the sports they support. But for him, the foundation is a community gathering place for friendship and opportunity. 

“It’s great to support an amazing opportunity for kids to train and young people to get outside. It’s part of Park City,” said Schmidt. “We just come here to join our friends and spend some time together. It’s a worthy cause and worthy of being supported.”

Dr. Stuart Willick is a sports medicine physician at the University of Utah Health and a veteran attendee of the annual event. Willick has seen these venues from multiple angles, he said, as a parent, a doctor and a sports administrator.

“The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation is an extraordinary group that does great things for us. The three venues under the umbrella of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation are truly world-class facilities. The Olympic and Paralympic movement is an extraordinary worldwide movement that promotes not just elite sport, but physical activity, health and wellness and recreation for everybody, and it’s great to be a part of it,” said Willick.

Willick’s ties to the Olympic movement run through every part of his life. His kids have trained at the park, and he’s worked the sidelines of countless events, including 10 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a physician, researcher and administrator. For him, the foundation is the backbone that keeps the Olympic spirit thriving long after the Games have moved on.

“Having the Games come to your town, which we did in 2002, is an experience like no other, and so many people are so excited about having the Games come back; it’s going to be phenomenal,” Willick said. “The Olympic and Paralympic movements are good for all. To see countries like Israel, Iran, Iraq march together, compete together and socialize together in the village is just so important.”

For Susan Ring, her connection to the Utah Olympic Park also started with her love of the Olympic Games. She arrived at the height of the 2002 Games preparations after moving to Park City in 1999, and her husband served as the venue manager for Soldier Hollow. 

“For the next Olympic Games, we’ll be volunteers because we’ll be too old to do anything else,” she joked. 

In the years since, Ring said she’s seen firsthand how those facilities continue to shape the region by boosting tourism, giving local kids access to world-class training grounds and offering non-athletes the chance to try Olympic sports. 

“They are very, very important, absolutely. For tourism, as well as for the community itself, leading people to the Olympics, and also for people who are not even into that, they all have the opportunity to try everything out,” said Ring.

After ziplining, ski jump descents and food trucks, the crowds gathered around the stage to hear from the evening’s speakers, Olympians Shannon Bahrke and Chris Mazdzer, and a lineup of local athletes on whom the foundation has had a profound and lasting impact. 

In the spirit of trying everything, local skiers Alli and Lauren Macuga recalled their childhood years spent at the Utah Olympic Park with the freedom to play, learn, and try any sport they chose. 

Today, Lauren is a member of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team and Alli competes on the U.S. Moguls Team. Both credit their rise to the opportunities they had growing up in a town where world-class training venues doubled as a community playground.

“Almost every day,  growing up, all four of us would come here. Our parents would just kind of throw us all in the pool and say, “All right, go do some tricks.” It was amazing. It’s really fabulous. It’s made for us,” said Lauren.

Alli remembered trying nearly every winter sport possible before narrowing her focus to moguls, the event she felt combined almost every one of them. 

“So I tried a lot of sports growing up. I had to go back and remember all of them, and it was about 10 winter sports. At the Utah Olympic Park, I tried slopestyle, I tried half pipe, aerials, big air moguls, obviously, even ski jumping and racing and ski cross. I tried everything. It was so fun to be able to have that opportunity, and so cool to be able to say that now,” said Alli.

Growing up just miles from the Utah Olympic Oval, national speed skater Casey Dawson first learned the sport through local development programs. Dawson now holds the world record in team pursuit and a bronze medal from the 2022 Winter Games. 

Dawson’s path embodies both the foundation’s mission and Park City’s Olympic legacy, where, for him, access to world-class venues was able to turn childhood curiosity into elite achievement.

“I’m a product of Park City, pretty much,” said Dawson. “The Olympics are coming up fast, and I think having these events, having visibility, is just awesome. My goal is to inspire the next generation, keep speed skating on the map, and make something of this community.”

Following in the footsteps of skaters like Dawson is Ezra Mangum, a young speed skater and Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation athlete already setting his sights on the 2034 Games. 

“The speed skaters lit a fire in my heart, and that fire was telling me to do it and be positive,” he said. “The skaters inspired me, so I started, and now I try to inspire people and light a fire in their hearts, too. Remember what makes you special!”

With Olympic dreams to meet, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation CEO Colin Hilton said the funding and energy that will come with hosting the Olympics again will directly translate into more opportunities for youth programs, athlete development and community recreation.

“It was about a year ago we got awarded the Games to come back in 2034. How does that impact us? More interest, more support, more ability to have legacy impact, and more ability to help our youth engage in sport, which has so much value to build life lessons like setting goals, building confidence,” said Hilton. 

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