(L-R)) President of the USOPC Sarah Hirschland, Paralympic multi-medalist Chris Waddell, Paralympic multi medalist Danelle Umstead, and Paralympic multi-medalist Monty Meier, all three athletes from Park City, in Salt Lake City announcing Games' donation program. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — At a star-studded event in Salt Lake City, an announcement was made and plenty of thanks went around regarding the new funding initiative called Podium ’34, and for the fact that the $200 million mark had been met in raising funds towards organizing Utah’s 2034 Winter Olympic Games.

Among the 22 donors of Podium34, nine are Founding Captain donors, each with a commitment of $20 million or more. Additional Founding Donors will contribute between $1 million and $15 million each.

“It’s amazing what we’ve accomplished already, raising this much money on such a long runway, and how that will go so far towards the 2034 Games,” Two-time Olympic gold medal alpine ski racer from Park City Ted Ligety told TownLift. “We’re really lucky to have this kind of community support here, it’s unlike anything else the Olympics has ever seen. The young athletes growing up in Utah will truly benefit from this in countless ways.”
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The room on Monday was filled with a gathering of the sports world that seemed magical to many, as illustrated in the photo below.

(L-R) Chris Madzer Luge Olympic medalist, Bill Schuffenhauer Bobsled Olympic medalist, Carl Roepke Olympic multi-Games announcer for Luge, bobsled, and skeleton, and Tristan Gale, skeleton Olympic medalist in Salt Lake City at 2034 Olympic Celebration. It's a global, historic rarity to have all three sliding sport disciplines in one place at one time, and with the only announcer who's announced all three sports and all three of their medals. — (L-R) Chris Mazdzer Luge Olympic medalist, Bill Schuffenhauer Bobsled Olympic medalist, Carl Roepke Olympic multi-Games announcer for Luge, bobsled, and skeleton, and Tristan Gale, skeleton Olympic medalist in Salt Lake City at 2034 Olympic Celebration. It’s a global, historic rarity to have all three sliding sport disciplines in one place at one time, and with the only announcer who’s announced all three sports and all three of their medals. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

Videos, like the one below showed many of the attendees, retired Olympians and Paralympians themselves.

Utah Governor Cox told the crowd, “We are blowing a lot of people’s minds with this announcement, and in a really positive way.”

Then, from Switzerland, the newly elected President of the International Olympic Committee, Summer Olympian Kristy Coventry was presented in this video.

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee President Sarah Hirschland was in attendance and said at the podium how young athletes inspire us all in how they have no guarentee of any certain level of success in their athletic endeavors, however they, and the ones in Utah especially, aren’t afraid to pursue their dreams anyway and give it all they’ve got.

USOPC President Sarah Hirscland in Salt Lake City at the podium on stage in front of the fundraisers delivering the 2034 Olympic preparations, thanking those donors.

Utah Olympic leader Fraser Bullock said that raising this much money in this much time has impressed Olympic leaders from all over the world. He reminded the people there that $200 million is a great place to be sitting right now, however, the real goal is to raise $300 million now since we aren’t allowed to get grants and funding from traditional official sources until after the end of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028.