Park City Olympian Ted Ligety’s contribution in bringing the Winter Games back to Utah

Ted Ligety's homecoming celebration at Park City Mountain Resort. Photo: U.S. Ski Team // Sarah Brunson

PARK CITY, Utah — As a four-time Olympian, Ted Ligety is world-renowned for his impressive alpine skiing. He earned gold medals in the 2006 Alpine Combined and the 2014 Giant Slalom. Additionally, in 2006, at 21 years old, he achieved another distinctive honor when he became the youngest American male to win a gold medal in alpine skiing.

Ligety, a Park City native, is adamant that his life, success, and career grew from the opportunities and access unique to the Park City community. “Park City is such an awesome environment to grow up in,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did in my ski career, or be who I am, without growing up here. 

A love of skiing brought Ligety’s parents to Park City in the 1970s. They introduced Ligety to skiing at two years old and, in turn, fostered an appreciation of the outdoors in their son and his younger brother. “We skied a lot as a family,” Ligety said, “That was our main family activity, skiing and mountain biking, and outdoorsy stuff around town. My parents often joke that the mountain was my babysitter.”

Throughout his youth, Ligety became increasingly involved in Park City-based ski programs, which was an essential component of his success. He participated in the Deer Valley Learn to Ski program until he joined the Farm Team, followed by the Park City Ski and Snowboard Team. Eventually, Ligety became a student at The Winter Sports School.

“The combination of PC Ski Team and the Winter Sports School was definitely transformative,” Ligety explained, adding that the collaborative nature of the two programs captures the essence of Park City. Participating in both prepared him for the intense training and commitment involved in a professional skiing career.

Ultimately, Ligety’s participation in the Park City Ski and Snowboard Team altered the course of his life and gave him the chance to test-ski the slalom course for the Utah-based 2002 Olympics. “I was fortunate enough to fore-run the slalom at Deer Valley, so I was, in a small way, part of those Olympics,” he said.

Ligety gained access to backstage events through his role as course tester, where he first glimpsed the life of an Olympic athlete. From watching his heroes, Ligety experienced a revelation.

“To see the guys I was really looking up to acting similar to my 17-year-old friend and me at a ski race… A light bulb went off in my head, and I thought, ‘Woah, this is achievable. I don’t have to be a machine to reach the best in the world.’ To have the opportunity to see that at a formative age,” said Ligety, “was a huge breakthrough.”

Four years after the 2002 Olympics, Ligety won gold at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, starting a new Utah tradition. “Utah hadn’t really had a homegrown Olympic medalist until 2006, and every single Olympics since then, we have a new one.”

Ligety officially retired as a competitive skier in February of 2021, enjoying more time at home in Park City and focusing on passing down the outdoor family traditions to his three sons, five-year-old Jax, and two-year-old twins Al and Will. “There are few places that are like this,” said Ligety of his hometown, “I want to share my childhood experiences with my kids.”

While cultivating adventure-based family traditions is one of his top priorities, Ligety remains deeply involved in the professional ski world. Despite being retired, he still participated in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, this time as an announcer. Ligety’s deep ties to the Olympics and lengthy professional career contribute to his commitment to seeing the Winter Olympics return to Utah. “I’m on the strategic board for the committee to get the games back in 2034,” he explained. “I’m involved because I see it as such an important and beneficial thing that happened in my life, and hugely transformative for the youth in the area.”

Ligety points out that Utah is one of the only places in the world fully equipped to host another Winter Olympics, since people in Utah love and use the Olympic venues created. It’s also this access to world-class training grounds that creates top-level athletes. “It’s amazing to see the communities of people that have come out of Utah now as legacies of those [2002] games using those facilities,” he said.

From his experience watching Olympic athletes as an adolescent, Ligety knows that bringing the Olympics back will open new doors and encourage the next generation of athletes.

“To bring the games back here to showcase the best in the world to Utah and Utah’s youth… is a huge opportunity,” Ligety said, “As Utahns, we should be immensely proud that we’ve done an amazing job of hosting the games in the past, and we’ve done an amazing job utilizing those games as a way to inspire local kids in this area.”

Ligety’s legacy grew from Park City, so his ambition is that the next generation of athletes will have the same life-altering experiences to draw on. “It was lucky and informative to have these world-class events in my backyard, that made the whole dream seem like it could become a reality.”