If you’ve ever ripped down the Grizzly Downhill Course at Snowbasin Resort or watched athletes flip and fly through the air at the Utah Olympic Park, you’ve already experienced a touch of what it’s like to be an Olympian. Utah isn’t just home to The Greatest Snow on Earth®; it’s where Winter Olympians live, lift, eat, and recover. From the U.S. Ski & Snowboard training center to the Nordic courdoury tracks of Soldier Hollow, Utah’s Wasatch Mountains are a training ground like nowhere else on earth. Want to know the best part? Much of where the Olympians train is accessible to everyday skiers and snowboarders, either to experience for themselves or to watch the pros do what they do best.
The USANA Center of Excellence: Where the foundation of the best in the world is built
Inconspicuously tucked away in Quinn’s Junction in Park City sits the USANA Center of Excellence, headquarters for all 10 of U.S. Ski & Snowboardsports. The 85,000 square foot building is the ultimate hub for winter athletic performance. The Center of Excellence is where the building blocks of a long journey to the top are stacked with sweat, snacks, and science.
Inside the Center of Excellence, the facility hums with purpose. When you first walk in, you are taken away by the size of the strength and conditioning gym, which features a variety of cardio machines, several squat racks, isokinetic strength training devices, a sprint track, and all of the boxes, balls, and battle ropes you could ever imagine. Adjacent to the strength and conditioning gym, you’ll find a basketball court with winter sport-specific features such as: an indoor skate ramp used for skill progression, Olympic-level trampolines for aerial mechanics, a spring-floor for tumbling work (and the occasional highly competitive spikeball game), and a basketball court for cross-training and group fitness classes. Here, athletes refine the details that become highlight-reel moments in the season to come.
In addition to the fitness facilities, The Center of Excellence is also a full-service sports medicine and high-performance lab. Physical therapists staff daily rehab and recovery sessions. These sessions include anything from specific injury treatments to recovery treatments, to private pilates classes on the two pilates reformers located in-house.
A dedicated exercise-physiology team monitors power output, aerobic capacity and works with the medical team to determine return-to-snow readiness. There’s a sauna, cold plunge, and pool where athletes recover after training sessions. And because fueling is training too, there is a sports dietitian on staff providing meals prepared during demanding periods, and a smoothie/snack bar always open to reach recovery needs.
The Center isn’t open for daily public use, but it does occasionally welcome the community for special events, ski fitness classes, and educational sessions. Even from the outside, it’s a reminder: greatness is built long before competition day.
Utah Olympic Park: The practice center of champions
Just up the road, The Utah Olympic Park keeps the Olympic spirit alive all year long. Built in the mid-1990s for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, it remains a training ground for world champions and a bucket-list stop for visitors.
As you drive into Kimball Junction, you’ll notice iconic ski jumps dominate the hillside to the West. These jumps were used for Ski Jumping events at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and remain a training center to this day. In the summer, the jumps can still be utilized due to their specific landing turf and are a favorite spot for locals looking to get some off-season fitness by running up the long staircase to the top. In the winter, the jumps and landings are groomed for aspiring ski jumpers and Olympic hopefuls to train as part of the Park City Ski and Snowboard Club.
In March of 2023, the Utah Olympic Park opened a private training chairlift called Game Changer for alpine ski training. This chairlift gives exclusive access to a training hill designed specifically to challenge Utah’s up-and-coming athletes in the disciplines of slalom, GS and super G. Keep an eye out for Utah’s athletes for the 2034 Winter Olympic Games because I bet this chairlift will be a game-changer for the young athletes of today.
In the summer, you can catch athletes from disciplines such as aerials, freeski, snowboarding, and freestyle skiing practicing their tricks with expert precision in a pool. This specialized pool comes equipped with several jumps of varying pitch and lip size with a system built in to produce bubbles from the bottom to break the surface tension as the athletes land in its cold, refreshing water.
Below the jumps, the Olympic bobsled track snakes down the mountain, hosting bobsled and skeleton training sessions. And here’s the kicker: you can actually join the action. Public bobsled rides and tours give you the chance to slide down the same ice that has crowned Olympic legends.
Deer Valley: where freestyle skiing shines
In the world of World Cup skiing, not many events are held domestically here in the US. But since 1998, Deer Valley Resort has been putting on one of the best shows in the country with the Intermountain Health Freestyle FIS World Cup. This event features the best athletes in the freestyle world right in our backyard. Weeks before the event, the athletes get an opportunity to train in the venue where the World Cup is held to prepare for the event. During the Freeski World Cup, spectators can walk or ride the Snowflake Chairlift to the base of the event. If you want even more of the action, you can also reserve a spot in the VIP tent to watch the event while enjoying some of Deer Valley Resort finest treats. It’s an incredible way to experience the excitement of freestyle skiing without an overseas ticket.
During the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics, Deer Valley Resort hosted alpine and freestyle events, including slalom, moguls, and aerials. Today, you can experience the rush of the former Olympic Slalom run by skiing Champion, which is also converted into the moguls course for the annual World Cup event.
Soldier Hollow: the endurance heart of the Games
In the meadows above Midway, Soldier Hollow continues its legacy as the center of Nordic excellence. Built specifically for the 2002 Games, it remains a training venue for cross-country skiers and biathletes of all ages. Perfectly groomed trails weave across the rolling foothills of the Wasatch Back. This venue is perfect for everything from beginner lessons to hardcore interval sessions.
Come winter, you can ski the same loops where athletes earned Olympic medals. Come summer, roller skis take their place as a reminder that champions don’t take breaks even in the off-season.
Click into the athlete’s mindset
While some of these elite facilities are reserved for those chasing World Cup podiums, Utah gives all of us the chance to experience pieces of their preparation. Whether you’re skating at Soldier Hollow or Solitude Nordic & Snowshoe Center (home to the University of Utah's cross-country ski team), or carving down Champion, channeling your inner Ted Ligety, Utah has the training centers to bring out the best in our local Olympians and the public.
