Utah 2034 announced its first community impact program on Saturday, leading up to the Winter Olympics’ return to Utah.
The organizing committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games partnered with Miller Sports + Entertainment to financially back Utah Youth Sports Giving Day, the organizations announced during a press conference at The Ballpark at America First Square.
“We’re thrilled to collaborate together, and the legacy of 2034 doesn’t have to start for those three weeks the Games are here; the legacy can start today,” Steve Starks, CEO of the Larry H. Miller Company and vice chairman of Utah 2034, said. “It can start with impacting people’s lives, and that is certainly true of our youth.”
Utah Youth Sports Giving Day, an initiative supported by the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation and the Daniels Fund, hopes to raise $3 million from Sept. 12-26 for nonprofits working to make youth sports more accessible.
A 2025 survey from the Aspen Institute reported a 46% increase in the amount the average American sports family spent on their child’s primary sport from 2019 to 2024.
The rising costs mean “too many children are still being left on the sidelines” and missing out on the lessons learned from participation in sports, Michelle Smith, the president of Miller Sports + Entertainment, said Saturday.
“We know sports help build confidence, discipline, resilience, leadership and a sense of belonging, which is all very important to all of us,” Smith said.
Utah Youth Sports Giving Day was inspired by the Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day, which the Denver-based Daniels Fund launched in 2024. Since its inception, the Colorado initiative has raised almost $9 million and engaged with more than 240 Colorado youth sports nonprofits.
Utah 2034 joins donors America First Credit Union, SME Industries, Mountainland Supply, George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Huntsman Family Foundation, Maverik, Ken Garff for Good, The Boyer Company, the Clark and Christine Ivory Foundation and Forever Young Foundation.
Those organizations pledged over $1.5 million in matching funds, including matching dollar-for-dollar the first $1 million raised.
With less than a month to go until the start of the campaign, Smith is feeling “so optimistic.”
“I think we knew that it was going to be embraced. We probably underestimated how quickly and to the depth of how much it would be embraced,” she said.
Smith called Utah 2034’s support the “perfect example” of how the state has embraced Utah Youth Sports Giving Day.
The initiative has already reached its goal of 100 nonprofits registering to participate, and Smith thinks “we’re going to be well over that by the time we get to the actual campaign.”
An Olympic and Paralympic perspective on youth sports
Olympic speed skater Austin Kleba’s athletic career began when he was 3 years old playing youth hockey in his hometown of Chicago.
“I really just wanted community,” he said Saturday. “I wanted friends, people to talk to.”
In addition to gaining friends, Kleba learned “life lessons that you really don’t find anywhere else” during his time playing youth hockey, he said.
Kate Delson, a Paralympic gold and silver medalist in Para snowboarding, played soccer and tennis growing up in California.
“It brought me a certain kind of confidence that I couldn’t find doing other activities because I was out there despite looking and walking and moving differently than my peers, but I was still playing with them,” she said.
Utah 2034’s participation in Utah Youth Sports Giving Day is the first of many community impact programs to come, including an education program that will launch Sept. 1, Utah 2034 CEO Brad Wilson told the Deseret News.
He added that community impact is one of the committee’s pillars as it determines how to positively impact the state of Utah before and after the 2034 Winter Olympics. Utah Youth Sports Giving Day is one part of that mission.
“This really isn’t about winning medals in 2034 for us,” Wilson said. “It’s about just helping kids across the state experience sport, winter or summer, in any way.”
But if any of the Utah youth who benefit from this initiative end up becoming Olympic medalists, that would be “the icing on the cake,” Wilson said.
Nonprofits can continue to sign up to participate in Utah Youth Sports Giving Day before registration closes on Sept. 1. The list of nonprofits that supporters can donate to is already available online.
“I think now what I would love is for Utah to go in and learn more and start game planning where they want to give so that when the campaign opens, they’re ready to go,” Smith said.
