Now the dream is possible for Utah’s next generation of Olympians

Moments after the International Olympic Committee voted in Paris on Wednesday to award the 2034 Winter Games to Utah, happy crowds — and the ringing of cow bells — filled the Rural restaurant just outside the massive main hall of the Palais des Congres de Paris.

The crowds, including Utah’s official delegation, were celebrating the state’s successful bid for 2034‚ a years-long ambition that is now a reality. For this group, the bid brings Olympic surety and collective looking forward.

“We put on the best Games yet in 2002, now we will put on the best Games ever,” said Salt Lake City Major Erin Mendenhall .

The moment filled Kate Pressgore, 16, of Heber, Utah, with pride.

“I am working very hard to get there,” said the figure skater.

So is luger Orson Colby, 18, of Riverton, Utah.

And speed skater Emma Debock, 15, of Farmington, Utah.

Each came to Paris with the Salt Lake City-Utah bid community to represent Utah’s Youth Sports Alliance — founded after the 2002 Winter Games to inspire a new generation of Olympic hopefuls.

And each has the potential to compete in Utah in 2034.

Orson was introduced to luge as a Boy Scout completing a merit badge. He was hooked.

He is working toward an Olympic berth in 2026 or 2030. “But the major goal is the 2034 Games on the home track in Salt Lake City,” he said.

Last year Emily Fisher, executive director of Youth Sports Alliance, watched his journey — as well as Emma’s and Kate’s.

“It’s not just about the 17 days of the Games, but also what the Games can do for the community,” she said.

The Youth Sports Alliance has served 15,000 youth since 2010. Last year alone the organization worked with 2,500 youth and provided $200,000 in scholarships. “Not all kids are journeying to become Olympians. But as they are exposed to winter sports, they will come to feel that Utah’s “mountains and trails belong to them.”

Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games chair Catherine Raney Norman , said today’s announcement will ripple forward with the state’s most elite young athetes.

Norman, a speed skater and four-time Olympian, said it is rare for an Olympian to complete in his or her own country. “I competed in 2002. And the games that had been hosted by the United States before that were in 1986.”

Norman wasn’t born at that time.

But things are different for the next generation of Utah Olympians.

“We have a generation of kids that get to wake up today in Utah, and their Olympic dreams could become a reality,” she said.