The Paris Paralympics are almost over. Utah’s turn to host the post-Olympic event comes in 2034

Chris Waddell has a big goal for the major international sporting event that will follow Utah’s next Winter Olympics in 2034, the Paralympics for athletes with disabilities.

“I think the biggest thing is wanting to make these the best Paralympics ever,” the skier and track athlete who’s competed in seven Paralympics, including when Utah held the event in 2002 , told the Deseret News during a break from his commentator duties for NBC Universal at this summer’s Paralympics in Paris that end Sunday.

When the Paris Paralympics began Aug. 28, Waddell co-hosted the Opening Ceremonies as one of the network’s record 25 commentators for what will end up being more than 1,500 hours of programming on NBC, Peacock, USA Network, and CNBC during the 12 days of competition.

Waddell, a member of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games that successfully bid for the 2034 Olympics and Paralympics, said he’s seen “tremendous audiences and great athlete performances” at the Paris Paralympics. The same can be true a decade from now in Utah, he said. “Those will happen as a result of the build toward 2034.”

In 2002, Waddell was the “face of the Paralympics” for Utah’s Games organizers, lighting the Paralympic cauldron at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium with another Paralympian, Muffy Davis to kick off the event, the first run by the same committee responsible for that year’s Olympics.

Back then, Waddell said he spent a lot of time introducing the Paralympics by giving speeches to a wide variety of groups, including school children, union members, corporate executives and big donors. Now, the event is bigger and better known, but he said there’s still work to be done in the next decade if Utah’s next Paralympics is going to be the best.

“That means promotion of the Games, the athletes and a big voice in both for the corporate sponsors. We can make the 2034 Paralympics great sport, great entertainment and history changing,” Waddell said. “The sport can change the landscape for people with disabilities, often an invisible part of society.”

After being paralyzed from the waist down by a skiing accident in college, Waddell went on to win 13 Paralympic medals and is the most decorated male monoskier in U.S. history. The Park City resident said “Utah needs great Games and to use the opportunity to build our community.”

Fraser Bullock , president and CEO of the bid committee, said a lot has changed since the limited coverage of the 2002 Paralympics was paid for by Games organizers.

“Since the Paralympics became connected to the Olympics, the profile has steadily risen over the years. It started with Salt Lake, and now we see the tremendous profile and attention and broadcast coverage that is far beyond anything we ever envisioned back in ‘02,” said Bullock, who served as chief operating officer of Utah’s last Games.

“Now, the amount of coverage is astonishing,” he said. “The Paralympic movement has just exploded in terms of visibility and popularity. It’s wonderful.”

For 2034, Bullock said he’s looking forward to sharing the stories of Paralympians, who compete with a wide range of disabilities including limb deficiencies, blindness and paralysis.

“These are elite athletes with a capital ‘E’ that are doing things that are almost incomprehensible,” he said, adding, “it’s one thing to watch an athlete compete . It’s a whole other thing to understand the whole person. That would be one of my ambitions, is that everybody can see more fully the whole person.”