Since the moment that the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games concluded on February 24, 2002, the Utah competition venues have remained vibrantly active and well maintained. This is not only good news for those who support the Games’ potential return to Utah in 2034 but is great news for visitors looking to experience the landscape of the Games firsthand. (The International Olympic Committee will vote on the 2034 Games host city in July 2024.) Following is how winter sports enthusiasts can slide and glide in the tracks of former—and likely future—Olympians in and around Salt Lake City.
Though it’s not a competition venue per se, the first 2002 Games landmark many Salt Lake City visitors see is the Hoberman Arch. This 36-feet tall and 72-feet wide translucent structure greets drivers leaving the Salt Lake City International Airport. The arch was originally conceived by inventor and artist Chuck Hoberman as a dynamic curtain for the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Medals Plaza stage. Following the Olympics, it resided at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium until 2014 when it was placed in storage to make way for the stadium’s expansion. Earlier this year, the Salt Lake City Department of Airports commissioned artist Gordon Huether—creator of the airport’s The Canyon and The Falls interior art installations—to revitalize the iconic piece. It now stands as an artistic homage to the Games and a triumphant welcome to visitors from around the globe.
Just 14 miles southwest of downtown Salt Lake City in Kearns is the Utah Olympic Oval, host of the 2002 long track speed skating events. There the public can glide around the two international-sized ice sheets, encircled by the 400-meter speed skating track, aka the “fastest ice on earth” due to how more Olympic records have been broken at the Oval than any other speed skating venue in the world. In addition to public skating and national and international speed skating competitions, the Oval hosts a variety of learn-to programs including figure skating, hockey, speed skating, and curling.
In 2002, Park City’s Deer Valley Resort hosted the Winter Olympics’ freestyle moguls and aerials and alpine slalom events on its Champion, Know You Don’t and White Owl ski runs. When these runs are closed for athlete training, guests can check out the action by skiing down the intermediate-level Solid Muldoon, a run sandwiched between White Owl and Know You Don’t. Better yet, plan to attend 2024 Intermountain Health Freestyle International Ski World Cup, February 1-4, 2024. This moguls and aerials freestyle skiing event has been held annually at Deer Valley for 26 years and is one of the most festive and celebrated elite ski competitions in the U.S., offering a next-best taste for the events held at Deer Valley in 2002.
Just over the ridgeline from Deer Valley is Park City Mountain, venue for the 2002 Olympics skiing Giant Slalom (GS) competitions and all snowboarding events. Expert skiers and riders can take on the steep and long C.B.’s run, where GS skiers and parallel GS snowboarders battled it out for Olympic gold. Or drop into the experts-only Pick N’ Shovel Halfpipe, the site of the first 22-foot-long Olympic halfpipe, dubbed during the 2002 Games as the Eagle Superpipe. For a more beginner- and intermediate-friendly tour of Park City Mountain’s Olympic venue runs, take a ride on the Eagle chairlift, which traverses directly overhead C.B.’s and the halfpipe.
Park City’s third 2002 Olympic venue is the Utah Olympic Park, home to the bobsleigh, luge, skeleton, ski jumping, and Nordic combined events. Today, the UOP remains a training center for both Olympic- and development-level athletes, as well as a one of the state’s most vibrant recreation destinations. Facilities there include the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center, housing the Alf Engen Ski Museum and the Eccles Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games Museum, both open to the public year-round, free of charge. Guided tours are offered daily and can be booked at utaholympiclegacy.org. Winter activities at the UOP include the Winter Bobsled Experience, a chance to whiz down the park’s icy track with a professional pilot. In the summer, the UOP is abuzz with mountain coasters, “Extreme” tubing, zip lines, scenic chairlift rides, freestyle aerial shows, and much more.
Just east of Park City in the charming, Swiss inspired town of Midway is Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, site of the 2002 Olympics’ biathlon, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined (cross-country skiing portion) events. There visitors can kick and glide along the same 30K track Olympians competed on in 2002. Other winter activities at Soldier Hollow include snowshoeing and no-skills-required snow tubing down the center’s 1,200-foot-long lanes. In the summer, Soldier Hollow offers biathlon and mountain biking instruction, and e-mountain bike rentals. The center’s robust events schedule includes a trail running series, amateur, pro mountain bike races including the Soldier Hollow Bike Fest, an annual sheep dog competition, and Nordic ski races.
These and other Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games venues are located on traditional Shoshone, Ute, and Paiute lands.
