4 April 2026
Utah’s Olympic legacy: Bridging the gap between 2002 and 2034
With the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship 2026 coming to a close, it has been almost a quarter of a century since the last time the Utah curling community played host to an elite event — the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games to be exact.
But with the Winter Games set to return in 2034, it won’t be anywhere near that long till the next time. The 2034 organisers, the Utah communities, US Curling and World Curling are all keen to make sure that this year’s World Championship is not just a one-off, but the first in a series of top-class events to be staged in Utah.
Calum Clark is a Co-Chair of the 2026 Championship, but in his day job, he is Chief Operating Officer of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation — a not-for-profit organisation “that celebrates the spirit of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games to inspire active, healthy lifestyles and increase community uses of Utah’s Olympic venues.”
And he explains, “Our Foundation has been asked to provide support in the early stages to the 2034 organising committee in venue planning and sport planning.”
The Foundation can point to a good track record in managing the venues it has responsibility for and in participation in the sports that use them, but, as Calum concedes, “We realised that, as we looked back over the last 20 years of Olympic legacy, unlike other sports, curling hasn’t been strengthened.”
He continued, “We’ve got great curling clubs, but we haven’t been on the elite circuit for a long time, so we’ve been looking to engage with World Curling to see what might be possible.”
And that is a big part of the reason that Ogden has been hosting this season. “World Curling came back to us and said the men’s championship was a possibility.”
In 2002, curling was still finding its feet as a sport in the modern Olympics and, while the Ogden events were considered to be successful, the sport has carved out a key role in the Olympic movement since those early tentative days.
Calum says, “I was lucky enough to go to Cortina to see just how vibrant and lively curling is now at the Olympics. While we love the 2002 heritage of the Weber Ice Sheet, we also recognise that the sport has grown massively. So, now we have a desire to bring curling to downtown Salt Lake City.
“Curling will be downtown, near the hockey arena, the medal plaza and the media centre. There is also going to be a temporary Big Air venue there.”
With curling set to be centre-stage, it is more important than ever that it is well-presented, and that’s where the need for hosting experience comes in.
Calum explains, “From our point of view, hosting this was the start, to allow us to brush off some dust and get back into the field.
“Building a relationship with World Curling is key, but really importantly, starting to build our network of volunteers, event officials and general skills around the sport is needed too.
“We realise that in order to do it properly and do it well, we need to be well-practised so that when the world curling community come to us in 2034, they’ll know we have capabilities and they can have a lot of trust in us.
“That’s why we’re looking, with US Curling and World Curling, at how we can get at least one more bite of the apple [in terms of hosting] before our test event.
“We know there will be a lot of pressure on at an Olympic or Paralympic Games and we want to make sure that the pressure is supported by really good structures and really good relationships.”
Calum also says, “2034 will be a big reach for the Utah community. We may be a long way out from it, but for us to jump in so early with this championship, and the way the community and this venue have prepared and delivered, has been really wonderful. It’s been hard work, but they’ve done a really great job.”
Clearly, as far as hosting curling events is concerned, Utah is showing that hard work can pay off.
Join the World Curling community!
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, LinkedIn and Weibo and by searching the hashtag #curling
Sign up for the World Curling Newsletter and receive monthly updates directly to your inbox.
