Julia Mancuso, Apolo Ohno Look Way Ahead to the 2034 Winter Olympics in Utah

Los Angeles isn’t the only American city getting ready to throw sports’ biggest party.

Apolo Ohno (racing here in Vancouver in 2010) built his legend at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which will return as hosts in 2034. | Sports Illustrated/Getty Images

At the closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Italian representatives will—as is tradition—hand over the Olympic flag to the French delegation. The countdown to the 2030 Games in the French Alps will begin.

Behind the scenes, however, NBC executives are doubtlessly salivating about a Winter Olympics even further down the road—the 2034 Games in Utah.

The third American Olympics of the 21st century after the 2002 (Salt Lake City) and forthcoming 2028 (Los Angeles) Games is already generating excitement despite being as far in the future as the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics are in the past. Count alpine skiing great Julia Mancuso and speedskating icon Apolo Ohno, who spoke with Sports Illustrated on Tuesday on behalf of the Factor Gold Collection, among those looking forward to that future date.

“I’m a part of the steering committee for the Utah Games,” Ohno said. “What's amazing is they have had success producing an Olympics under really challenging times, and they did so successfully, and it was a really important moment.”

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The ‘02 Games—the first for both Mancuso and Ohno—took place under the specter of two major non-competitive storylines. Salt Lake City’s reception of the Games was marred by accusations of bribery and fraud, and the Sept. 11 attacks five months prior created a tense security atmosphere. Despite this, the Games are widely remembered as a success.

“Hopefully, Julie and I will be there, live, supporting everyone,” Ohno said. “I'm so incredibly grateful to have ever had the chance to go out there represent Team USA, and it's given me the world. ... So any way that I can support that dream and that journey, I think it inspires the rest of the country to believe once again, which is really cool.”

Notably, the ’34 Olympics have been rebranded as Utah 2034 rather than Salt Lake City 2034, echoing the more regional nature of these (and most contemporary) Games. Alpine skiing, for instance, will take place more than 30 miles from Salt Lake City in Weber County—at Snowbasin, the same venue where Mancuso competed in 2002.

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Mancuso was just 17 then, and will be 49 in ‘34. That’s all part of the Olympic circle of life, which she suggested Utah has the chance to help perpetuate.

“Bringing the Olympics back home to America—it really can drive that extra inspiration for the future generation. ... I really love that for our country,” she said. “I think that there's going to be a lot of kids inspired, especially having my own kids now—I think it's just so much more tangible when it's in your home country and you can see it live or on TV and it's there in the same time zone.”

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