Lindsey Vonn plans to make Salt Lake City’s 2034 Olympics better for athletes’ families

Lindsey Vonn arrives in Paris before he Opening Ceremonies on July 26, 2024 Photo: AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

“It’s never been done before in the Olympics, which actually is pretty surprising to me,” Vonn said in an interview Saturday at the Summer Olympics in Paris. “We’re going to take care of the families, not just the athletes.”

PARIS (AP) — When Lindsey Vonn skied in her fourth and final Olympics in South Korea in 2018, her mother and the rest of the family took three-hour train rides from Seoul to the mountains to watch her compete. Previous experiences were not much better.

So, when she got involved in the bid for Salt Lake City to land the 2034 Winter Olympics, the now-retired alpine ski racer had an obvious focus. Vonn wanted to make life easier for athletes’ families.

Earlier this week, the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to the Utah capital, which Vonn is proud to say will have at least one family village for housing accommodations, along with transportation, ticketing, translation services and other logistical assistance.

“It’s never been done before in the Olympics, which actually is pretty surprising to me,” Vonn said in an interview Saturday at the Summer Olympics in Paris. “We’re going to take care of the families, not just the athletes.”

Vonn, 39, won one gold and two bronze medals over four Olympics from her debut in Salt Lake City in 2002 through Pyeongchang six years ago. Injuries interrupted her career, and her most recent knee surgery only let her get back on the slopes recreationally.

Unlike friend Marcel Hirscher, the Austrian-Dutch alpine ski racer, a comeback is not in the cards. A decade from now, she will be watching, not competing.

“Unless curling needs another member — maybe I could learn that,” Vonn quipped.

She now lives in northern Utah and hopes to make it feel like home for visiting athletes and their loved ones.

Organizers of the 2034 Games plan to house athletes and their immediate family members on the University of Utah campus just 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from downtown Salt Lake City. The bid team is currently working with the university to determine how many beds it can make available — an early estimate in May placed the number between 1,000 and 2,000.

“That’s actually one of our biggest kind of selling points of the bid was having the family village right next to the normal athlete village, which will be so much easier,” Vonn said.

The project spearheaded by Vonn and seven-time Paralympian Chris Waddell will be funded by sponsors, meaning it likely won’t cut into the nearly $4 billion in total costs organizers have budgeted for the Games, spokesperson Tom Kelly said Saturday.

Olympics are notorious for overspending, and also for being difficult to track money-wise. If Salt Lake City can come close to that estimate, it would represent a remarkable shift from the last few Winter Games, which have come in billions over budget.

Salt Lake City bid leaders boast that they’ve created one of the most compact layouts in Olympic history, with all planned venues within a one-hour drive of the athlete and family villages. The final plan they presented Wednesday to Olympic officials requires no new permanent construction, with all 13 venues already in place and each having played a role when the city first hosted.

The tight-knit nature of the Games marks a major improvement for athletes who’ve often found it difficult to spend time with family and watch teammates compete in other sports while traveling for their own events.

Another recently retired U.S. star, sprinter Allyson Felix, was behind an effort similar to Vonn’s family village plan, creating the first nursery for athletes with young children at this year’s Olympic village in Paris. The space is meant to reduce the stress of arranging childcare during competition while allowing athletes to be closer to their children, who are not allowed to stay with their parents in the village. Under Vonn’s plan, they could be housed with other family members just blocks away.

Vonn said she feels like a kid getting to watch elite sports in Paris. Like seemingly everyone else, she cannot wait to catch a glimpse of beach volleyball with the Eiffel Tower serving as the backdrop, and her love of tennis should draw her to Roland Garros.

Over the years, she has corresponded with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic about bouncing back from knee injuries.

“They write me and we talk about our injuries and what we can do to help each other,” she said. “A lot of it is experience and, when you have surgery for the first time, there are a lot of unknowns, so helping each other through it, I think, is really important.”

Vonn plans to return to Cortina d’Ampezzo when the northern Italian mountain city hosts its share of the 2026 Olympics with Milan. It’s a place that holds a special place in her heart. She made her first podium appearance there and later broke the World Cup record.