NEW YORK (Reuters) - The 2034 Salt Lake City Games will help inspire the next generation of American Olympians, U.S. athletes said on Friday, with the Rocky Mountain town set to host the Winter Olympics for the second time in 32 years.
U.S. mogul skier Nick Page, who finished fifth in Beijing, was born just after the 2002 Salt Lake Games and was thrilled at the idea of the Olympics returning to the same run where he learned to ski.
"It'll be huge," Page told Reuters. "We're going to have more and more kids starting, hopefully seeing us perform really well in their home country, in their back yard and then they'll want to follow in the same footsteps."
Salt Lake tourism officials were kicking off the decade-long countdown early on Friday with an "Olympian's Playground" pop-up event in New York, where Utah-based athletes like Page helped build up the excitement.
A climbing wall cut against the Manhattan skyline, while a curling rink set along the Hudson River was available for New Yorkers to get an early taste of the Games.
Chris Lillis, who helped the U.S. to gold in the inaugural mixed team aerials in 2022, knows that his odds of competing in Salt Lake are slim considering he is now aged 26 but he was eager to promote the Games.
Salt Lake had originally wanted to bid for the 2030 Games, which were awarded to France, but altered course with the 2028 Los Angeles Games coming just ahead.
"As an athlete, selfishly, I was really looking for this announcement for the 2030 or the 2026 Olympics," said Lillis, who is based in Park City.
"But then when it came around for 2034, I think the most exciting part is just that a whole new generation of athletes are going to get that investment, they're going to grow up, they're going to be planning on that Olympics."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
