After 19 exhilarating days of competition, the 2022 Winter Olympics came to a close with a boatload of highlights featuring U.S. athletes with ties to Utah.
Salt Lake City-born Nathan Chen captured two figure skating medals while cross-country golden girl Jessie Diggins wrote a new line in U.S. history books by winning an historic two individual Olympic medals. Chin|Fleming|Harris celebrates these shining U.S. Olympic moments as well as Utah’s Olympic legacy by taking a look at some of our local athletes’ winning performances and how you can create your very own Olympic experience!
Here comes Diggins, again! Utah athletes bring home the hardware
More than one third of the 224 U.S. athletes competing in Beijing were either born in Utah, live and train full-time in here or were educated in Utah, starting with homegrown Chen.
His first medal came with a silver for the U.S. in the team event followed by a spectacular gold in the men’s competition. Chen earned the highest score ever recorded in the short program, setting the world record with a score of 113.97 in a performance where he nailed two quadruple jumps. During his free skate to a medley of Elton John including “Rocket Man,” Chen landed five quads including a quad Lutz — considered the most difficult jump in figure skating.
Diggins, who trains in Park City, was already one of the most recognizable faces representing Team USA in Beijing after she captured gold in 2018 with teammate Kikkan Randall. But the Minnesota native with the glittering cheeks – and personality to match – extended her legacy even further in Beijing. By winning bronze in the individual sprint freestyle, she became the only U.S. athlete to ever win two Olympic medals in cross-country skiing. Then, in the final women’s event of the Games, Diggins won silver in the 30km freestyle despite dealing with food poisoning a day before the race.
After a slip at Olympic Trials nearly cost speed skater Erin Jackson her second trip to the Winter Olympics, she captured gold in the women’s 500-meter event to become the first Black woman to win a speed skating medal of any color. Jackson, who trains in Salt Lake City, is the first American to win speed skating gold since Shani Davis (1000m) in 2010. She’s also the first American woman to win gold in the women’s 500m since Bonnie Blair won three straight (1988, 1992, 1994). Fellow SLC resident, longtime close friend and Opening Ceremony flag bearer Brittany Bowe earned speed skating bronze in the women’s 1000m.
Park City residents Ashley Caldwell, Chris Lillis and Justin Schoenefeld captured gold in the mixed team aerial skiing event, pulling off one of the biggest upsets at the Beijing Olympics by defeating gold-medal favorite China by 14 points. Caldwell, a University of Utah graduate, also made the final of the women’s aerial competition, while Lillis finished sixth in the men’s event and Schoenefeld, who attends UVU, was fifth. University of Utah graduate Megan Nick captured a surprise bronze in women’s aerials, becoming the first U.S. woman to medal in the event since Park City’s Nikki Stone in 1998.
Fellow Park City locals Alex Hall and Nick Goepper swept gold and silver, respectively, in the men’s slopestyle skiing. Goepper has been on the podium all three times (bronze in 2014, silver in 2018 and ’22) that slopestyle has been an Olympic sport. Salt Lake City resident Jaelin Kauf won silver in women’s moguls, becoming the first U.S. woman to win a moguls medal since Hannah Kearney’s bronze in 2014.
Create your own Utah Winter Olympics experience
Utah celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics throughout the month of February, but it also celebrated the news that Salt Lake City is an official bid city for a future Games in 2030 or 2034. Whether you’re looking to bring 2002 to life or explore what’s in store for future Olympians, here’s a guide to hitting all of Utah’s Olympic venues.
VISIT THE OLYMPIC CAULDRON: Start off by visiting the stunning Olympic cauldron, located in the park at the south end of Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah. The twisting, 72-foot steel and glass structure features a 12-foot glass cauldron with a flame that burns at 900 F when lit, LED lights and streams of water running down the glass to resemble melting ice. It sits on a large pedestal that includes an additional water-fountain feature.
CHECK OUT THE UTAH OLYMPIC PARK: Easily seen from the road thanks to the majestic ski jumps, this nearly 400-acre venue boass one of just four sliding tracks in North America, six Nordic ski jumps, a 2002 Winter Games museum and a multitude of adventure activities. The most thrilling hand-on experience at the park might be the Winter Bobsled Experience, you’ll reach mach speeds on the same track that hosted the bobsled, skeleton and luge events during the 2002 Games.
TACKLE THE CHAMPION MOGULS RUN AT DEER VALLEY: Deer Valley Resort hosted an annual World Cup on the steep and long moguls run, where U.S. skier Jonny Moseley broke new ground with his signature “Dinner Roll,” and D-spin 720. After World Cup and NorAm competition, the resort leaves the bumps available for skiers to try their hand at the Olympic course.
SKI THE GRIZZLY, WILDFLOWER DOWNHILLS AT SNOWBASIN: Snowbasin hosted the 2002 speed events in alpine skiing – the super-G, downhill and combined. Olympic champion and famed downhill course designer Bernhard Russi built the two speed hills: “Grizzly” for the men and “Wildflower” for the women. The runs start from the top of the Allen Peak Tram and wind down the slope to the base area.
GO CROSS COUNTRY-SKIING AT SOLDIER HOLLOW: Soldier Hollow, located in Wasatch Mountain State Park, was built specifically for 2002 Olympic Nordic events including biathlon and cross-country. Today, the park remains a training ground for world-class athletes, hosting World-Cup events and an array of recreational opportunities.
TRY ICE SKATING AT THE OLYMPIC OVAL: The Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns was built to house the Olympic speed-skating events, and today it still hosts international events as well as public skating sessions on one of the two international-sized ice sheets. The sheets are ringed by a 400-meter speed skating oval, where nine world records were set during the 2002 Games.
DROP INTO THE HALFPIPE AT PARK CITY MOUNTAIN: Snowboarding made its winter Olympics debut in 2002 when Americans Ross Powers, Danny Kass and J.J. Thomas swept the podium. Today Park City boasts a progressive park and pipe set-ups that features six terrain parks one halfpipe and a mini pipe.
