What a Utah lawmaker learned from running the Paris Olympics marathon course

Utah state Sen. Mike McKell has run more than a dozen marathons, but only one offered a midnight view of the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

“I rank this near the very, very top. It was an incredible experience,” McKell said after participating in the “Marathon for All” during the 2024 Summer Games in Paris last Saturday, held between the men’s and women’s Olympic marathon races.

The 26.2-mile course took him past Parisian landmarks like the famed Louvre museum, where the balloon-like Olympic cauldron burned through Sunday, to the palace of Versailles before turning back toward the City of Light.

There were light and fog effects along with bands and cheering crowds to encourage the some 22,000 amateur runners, said McKell, the co-chairman of the Utah Legislature’s Olympic and Paralympic Games Coordination Committee that’s overseeing the 2034 Winter Games .

“The city of Paris stayed up late and there was a party along the course,” he said. “The crowd was great.”

But the moment that made him pause to take it all in even if it meant a 3:31 finish, not his best time?

“The coolest part was coming back in to the city. We dropped through a tunnel. There was a road coming in to Paris, where the Eiffel Tower lines up with the road, just dead center, just square in the middle of the road. We’re running right towards the Eiffel Tower,” McKell said.

At midnight, he said, the iconic tower lit up for the hourly five-minute show.

“It was the only photo I stopped for. I mean, it was incredible. I had to stop,” McKell said. “I was running directly at the Eiffel Tower and it was sparkling in the middle of the night. It was so cool. ... I actually can’t believe I got to do it.”

The state lawmaker, who paid his own way to Paris, said the five-day trip gave him a new perspective on what another Olympics could bring to the state that hosted the 2002 Winter Games .

“I think the Olympic spirit is real. The emotions that we’ve felt here are real and something powerful that our nation needs and something that the world needs. Outside of all the goals that we’re going to have as a state, I think it’s a way to show unity in the world,” he said.

While much of the discussion about what state leaders can accomplish ahead of the Olympics has focused on infrastructure projects, such as double-tracking the FrontRunner commuter trains, McKell said he’s got some ideas for the 2034 Games organizers, too.

“I think what you’re going to see over the next year, we’re really going to try to establish, what are our goals for the Games in Utah and what do we want to accomplish. And obviously, there’s going to be this energy and it’s going to allow us to work on our infrastructure and improve our cities,” he said.

But he’d like to find a way to bring the 2034 Games to more people, just as Paris did with the amateur marathon and opening ceremonies along the Seine River as well as by spreading venues across the city, the region, the country and the world, with surfing events in Tahiti as part of its “Games Wide Open” theme.

“One of the questions I’ll be asking is how do we best involve the public across the entire state. In a perfect world, that’s going to be all the way from Cache County to Washington County,” McKell said, whether that means adding new Olympic competitions or just holding events during the Games.

“I don’t want to see Utah 2034, we just sell tickets. I want to see the public involved and engaged in a major way. When I think of what’s our 10-year plan, for me, that’s one of the first goals,” he said. “Paris did a marathon, and a 10K. Utah, what do we have to offer? What can we do? Let’s figure it out.”

That may mean getting creative, McKell said, maybe coming up with some new Olympic competitions for 2034 that could appeal to athletes from parts of the world where winter sports aren’t popular, such as Africa.

His suggestion? Winter cross-country running, an outdoor event on natural terrain that could be held in a place like St. George. In Paris, breakdancing was a new sport, while for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, obstacle racing will replace horseback riding in modern pentathlon.

“I think we need to be open to opportunity,” he said, acknowledging his bias toward running may mean not everyone will share his enthusiasm for pushing to add a sport that hasn’t been in the Olympics for 100 years.

McKell said now that he’s seeing new possibilities for what can happen in Utah, he’s happy there’s a decade to plan.

“We’ve got lots of work to do to make sure we’re prepared,” he said, that will involved government and community leaders at all levels. “It’s going to be all hands on deck. It’s going to be a large, large comprehensive effort.”

While watching the Paris 2024 closing ceremonies Sunday in the massive Stade de France, McKell said he saw footage of what was called the “Marathon por Tous” mixed in with the men’s and women’s Olympic marathon competitions.

“I know that was important to them, to try to engage the public. You know, I think they killed it,” he said, adding, “I think there’s a lot we can learn from what we saw.”