SBJ Unpacks: Utah 2034 studying up on Milan Cortina

We’re approaching the end of these Olympics, which have been full of chasing stories, chasing mascots and so much bread. I’ve been lucky enough to be in Milan and Cortina, giving me a good sense of the city and mountain feel of these Winter Games. Like all Olympics, getting to cover them is exhilarating and exhausting — if with a bit more time in transit this go-around.

I’ll have more final reflections this weekend, but I appreciate you following along. Grazie mille.

Also tonight:

• Winter sport NGBs collaborating in push for the podium
• TOP sponsors get further commercial integration into Winter Games
• Lilly leverages Milan Cortina, LA28 deals in Olympic activations
• Op-ed: Why are Paralympians left out of women’s sports movement?

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour discusses the prospects of the Seahawks selling for $8 billion, the 49ers becoming the NFL’s road warriors with an estimated 38,000 miles of travel thanks to games in Australia and Mexico, Providence Equity Partners seeking to sell all of Wasserman as one unit and more.

MILAN — The Winter Olympics that wrap here on Sunday will look operationally quite different than the Games that Utah will host in eight years.

With only an hour between its mountain venues and Salt Lake City, the 2034 Games will not have a regional spread anywhere close to Milan Cortina. Ever the eager host, the organizing committee brought more than 80 observers from around the state to learn how these Games are working and study venue preparations and logistics.

“We’ll learn a lot and then we’ll do it again in four years with the French Alps,” said Utah CEO Brad Wilson. “A lot of these people, it just also stokes the enthusiasm in our community, quite frankly, to have them here.”

That enthusiasm outpaces the size of the organization, for now, at least. Utah 2034 will go from around a dozen staff to around 20 by the end of the year and 30 by the end of 2027.

As they look ahead, the commercial structure will be finalized in the coming year. The host city contract requires organizing committees to sign a marketing plan agreement with their national Olympic committee so that they work together and aren’t competing in the market.

Utah 2034 and the USOPC have yet to finalize what that looks like, but it’s clear that it will be different than the joint venture the USOPC has with LA28, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties.

That deal saw the USOPC turn over commercial sales and control of Team USA assets to LA28 with a $488 million guarantee for the USOPC through 2028.

USOPC leaders are looking at more of a shared entity with Utah 2034 that will create a commercial organization that lives on beyond those Olympics and Paralympics.

“We’ve decided the Team USA concept is the everlasting concept,” said USOPC chairman Gene Sykes. “What we need to do is develop something which is the marketing organization, the commercial organization, a little bit like what the USOPP is, but not something that is designed to go out of business.”

With whatever structure the sales entity for Utah 2034 takes on, it will go to market at the start of 2027 with renewal discussions for existing USOPP sponsors.

Wilson said the organizing committee is in talks with some venues about updating them. Many of them have been in regular operation since the 2002 Games, and Utah has hosted more than 12,000 national or international events in the years since.

With many of the same leaders involved in this effort as led the Games two decades ago, including Executive Chair and President Fraser Bullock, organizers will think about a people legacy as well.

“We need to make sure we’ve got people that have experience in Games delivery,” Wilson said. “We need to have people that don’t so we’re building the next generation of leaders. ... We’ve got a little time to think about this, but our team will start to really grow right after the L.A. Games.”

CORTINA d’AMPEZZO, Italy — In the weeks before the pandemic shut down the world, the leaders of the winter sports national governing bodies and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee convened in Chicago.

With the U.S. long dominant in the Summer Games, they were looking for ways to build toward similar success on their side. The coordination that started there among the eight NGBs and the USOPC is one that has grown and deepened in the years since.

The Milan Cortina Games represent a high point in a strategy of seeing them work together across sports to build U.S. success, from sharing learnings that translate across sport to supporting each other in a WhatsApp chat. With coordination and growing camaraderie, they’re looking to improve Team USA’s standing in the Winter Games.

With 27 medals through Thursday’s competition, the Americans are on pace to have their best Games since Sochi 2014, when they brought home 28 medals.

“It was more of a zero-sum game before of ‘We are focused on ourselves, and if you get better, it might mean less funding to us,’” said Rocky Harris, the USOPC’s chief of sport and athlete services. “Now they’re seeing that if we work together that we can all get better and they were always cheering for Team USA, but now it’s a different level of commitment to each other.

“We expect to be the best winter sport nation in the future like we are in summer,” he added, “and we’re not apologetic about that. We’re not hiding from that at all.”

The goal is a lofty one. With the more immediate eye toward Utah 2034 in just eight years and the longer-term vision of U.S. success, the Americans have some work to do. Norway leads the all-time medal count in golds and overall medals, followed by the USA.

The United States has only ever won the total medal count twice, in Vancouver 2010 and Lake Placid 1932, the latter of which being the only time it has ever won the gold medal count.

Changing that tide has become a concerted effort for the NGB leaders, who are sharing everything from high performance insights to technology and data analytics where their sports overlap.

That first meeting has been followed by several others, including in Park City, which will host many of them during the Olympics in 2034. The USOPC’s Kelly Skinner, VP/high performance and Jen Bryant, high performance director of winter sport, lead monthly calls with the CEOs and high-performance staff of the winter NGBs.

“There’s a lot of overlap in synergies,” said Sophie Goldschmidt, CEO of U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “Obviously, how you ski downhill is very different to speedskating or curling, but there’s so many other areas that are very relevant toward us.

“I love the proactivity. We really feel like we’re in it together in these moments. The highs and lows and keeping encouraging everyone.”

Building collaboration

The NGBs do vary from a size and resource standpoint just as much as their sport-specific needs. But in the group, they have found overlap.

In their discussions, they’ve shared learnings about coach and athlete selection procedures. With funding from the USOPC, the sliding sports have hired a shared start coach for this season.

USA Bobsled and Skeleton used a video analysis capture that U.S. Ski and Snowboard used first. US Biathlon and U.S. Ski and Snowboard are sharing methods and best practices on wax tech. Based in Park City, US Speedskating and U.S. Ski and Snowboard have opened their training facilities to athletes in other sports when they’re in town.

The USOPC launched Athlete 360, a platform that pulls in performance data and medical record to help tailor training to athletes’ specific needs.

“That kind of thing doesn’t happen if it’s three different NGBs at three different times talking to us,” Harris said. “It happened because they collectively came together and said it was important to them.”

That working together is starting to pay off in Milan Cortina. Dean Gemmell, CEO of USA Curling, said his NGB worked closely with the USOPC and other NGBs around sports psychology and coaching as it pushed in the final months to qualify its men’s and women’s team here.

“From my experience as a player, I would say the USOPC is really a lot more responsive right now,” Gemmell said. “And we’ve developed, especially in the past seven months, some really good relationships with people there that I think have helped our performance here.”

While they haven’t launched official joint projects in all areas, they have shared learnings around everything from blade technology to aerodynamics and advancements in wearables to suit technology.

Seeing what other sports are doing has prompted NGB leaders go back and examine what more they could be doing in their sport, said Pat Kelleher, executive director of USA Hockey.

“It’s just kind of a fun camaraderie,” he said. “We are different. We’re the only team sport, and we’re bigger, but it’s great to just share. We love to share what we do, and we love to hear what the other NGBs do.”

Podium push

The collective effort of pushing toward the top of the podium extends beyond the NGBs, too, said USA Luge CEO Scott Riewald.

The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation and Olympic Regional Development Authority, which manages the venues in Lake Placid, has been part of the collaboration, as well. Access to training, camps and specific venues is key to the winter sports strategy.

“It’s the athletes that are kind of more in the developmental ranks and getting them the opportunities and training experience to learn the track cold,” Riewald said. “And that doesn’t just happen in a year. It happens over time.”

Some of that is happening with financial support from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, which has winter sport and tech and innovation funds.

Riewald said that helped with a unit that the NGB can attach to sleds to gather data that helps it see where they’re gaining and losing speed, among other data points. It’s one that can be deployed further down the developmental system or in other sports.

Gemmell said USA Curling is looking at a lab set up, including cameras and computers, to keep pace with other countries. The system runs around $20,000 apiece, and USA Curling is working on where it can put them to best analyze its athletes.

“Everyone’s got skis or runners on snow or ice. Everyone has a speed suit or a racing suit,” Riewald said. “What are we learning individually and trying to pull information collectively to be better? And we’re not all kind of chasing the same rabbit individually. We can help each other be more directed and refined.”

Harris said the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation is helping execute the strategy, devoting tens of millions of dollars over the past three years. It is providing microgrants to help athletes just off the podium get more training, helping to pay for training camps and working on tech innovations around aerodynamics.

“I think we have to look at ourselves to find what are ways that we can find new resources, more resources?” said Aron McGuire, CEO at USA Bobsled and Skeleton. “Then it’s also on the USOPC as well and they’ve done some great job of fundraising and getting new donors in. And so I think it takes all of us.”

MILAN -- At the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, the PA announcer reminds fans to recycle their Coca-Cola bottles in the branded bins spaced around the concourse.

For figure skating, P&G brand Puff’s has been introduced to the “kiss and cry” area where athletes receive their scores.

Across venues, TCL-branded televisions await athletes as they leave competition for their Athlete Moment where they can have a video call with friends or family from home.

With the Paris Games making clear the IOC’s longstanding clean-venue policy was evolving, the Milan Cortina Olympics are showing how much that has shifted to allowing commercial integration in the venues while maintaining a clean field of play.

“We want to continue to actually celebrate and be proud of what our partners are doing with us, while at the same time, be mindful of the legacy of the Games and the uniqueness of the presentation of the Games,” said Anne-Sophie Voumard, managing director of IOC Television & Marketing Services.

“What we’re trying to achieve is making sure that we portray and proudly portray our partners in each of the venues in a way that is unique to us.”

The IOC’s evolution in this area comes as more change is imminent. New president Kirsty Coventry’s “Fit for the Future,” reform process includes a commercial partnerships and marketing working group.

Coventry said all of the TOP sponsors, whose deals start at around $200M per quad, have given feedback in the process. Though they don’t share the specifics publicly, the sponsors want to see more brand integration into the Games, not less.

“We’ve had a dedicated time with our existing TOPs and partners now to walk through where we see ourselves and how we see ourselves moving in the future and what that looks like for them, what that looks like for us,” Coventry said.

“We’re going to fully take that on board and have the discussions that you just spoke about of how do we both need to evolve together.”

Paris had set a new high-water mark on this front. Athletes took “Victory Selfies” with Samsung phones atop the podium, something that has continued in Milan Cortina. A video tour of the LVMH Maisons that designed the medals and their cases caused alarm within the movement, mostly because an organizing committee sponsor received what effectively was an ad during the ceremony while TOP sponsors did not have the same opportunity despite their higher price tag.

But with the IOC agreeing to LA28’s proposal to sell venue naming rights, commercialization has only advanced since then.

“We’re always looking to evolve the program, so it is not a question of whether there is a before and after (LVMH),” Voumard said. “We’re constantly looking for new ways to making sure we remain relevant.”

That evolution will come as the IOC looks to refortify the TOP program. Five sponsors left after 2024, leaving the program with its lowest revenue since 2020 ($560M last year) and its lowest number of sponsors (11) since 2015.

IOC officials have said they are in conversations with other sponsors, with Voumard adding that the ongoing review process that will change the program is helping in those conversations.

Whether the IOC can add new sponsors before the reform process is set to reveal recommendations this summer remains to be seen. As much as those changes can help, so too can a Milan Cortina Games that included more commercial integration than ever before.

MILAN -- For most Team USA sponsors, the Milan Cortina Games represented a chance to leverage their connection to the USOPC and activate with athletes and in the U.S.

But Lilly signage shines over the Via Orefici near the company’s hub here, its logo and tagline -- A Medicine Company -- illuminating the street among pictograms of the winter sports. Its “Impossible Gym” sits a block away from the Duomo di Milano, with the experience allowing the public to get the company’s more holistic message around fitness and health. Decals on the floor and seatbacks of metro trains display the company’s logo.

In addition to its U.S. deal, Lilly signed on as a domestic sponsor of Milan Cortina, announcing the agreement just months before these Olympics opened.

“In Milan, we took it to the next level,” said Jennifer Oleksiw, global chief customer officer at Lilly, “and it is really not just about creating visibility for Lilly, it’s about making sure people know what Lilly stands for.”

Lilly signed its deal with U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties -- the joint venture between LA28 and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee -- in 2020.

While it’s “Never Over” campaign has included ad buys and out-of-home inventory in the U.S., its deal here has given it more visibility on the ground.

Some Team USA sponsors have activated in private spaces like the Winter House, a private hospitality space organized by U.S. Figure Skating, USA Hockey and US Speedskating. Starbucks is the title sponsor, while Xfinity -- whose parent company, Comcast, is an LA28 and Team USA sponsor -- and CDW are also sponsors.

Lilly also signed seven U.S. athletes, including bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor and Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin -- both gold medalists here. After signing its Milan Cortina deal, it added four Italian athletes, including Sofia Goggia, a bronze medalist in Alpine.

The further investment is helping Lilly reposition itself as more than a pharmaceutical company, and it’s one where it is seeing returns.

“The most important measure we have is making sure that our patients and communities know who Lilly is, but more importantly what we stand for and that our fight for health is never over and we’re willing to take on the most debilitating diseases to get there,” said Oleskiw.

“That transformation and that storytelling at the Olympic time helped us make sure that people knew we were a medicine company.”

Have you heard of Brenna Huckaby? Maybe you’ve seen her in “Sports Illustrated,” as the first Paralympian to appear in the Swimsuit Issue. But did you know she started snowboarding at 14 on a hospital rehab trip, after losing her right leg to bone cancer? And more importantly, did you know that her biggest fan is her 9-year-old daughter, Lila, who can’t wait to be the loudest one cheering in the stands in Milan?

The greatest tragedy in sports isn’t about who loses. It’s what we all lose when real stories are sacrificed for medal counts and flashy headlines. When world-class athletes are reduced to click-driven narratives so distorted that competitors can’t recognize themselves. When a fight for inclusion recreates the same exclusions it claims to challenge, specifically when it comes to women’s sports sidelining those whose labor and resilience made that progress possible in the first place: Black and brown women, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities.

Growing up, we wanted to see more women on ESPN and NBC — period. We wanted to see women we could see ourselves in, who were the best in the world, but who were also shown as fully human — navigating societal pressures, mental health challenges, and impossible expectations, not just reduced to scores and podium moments. For para athletes, that representation is even rarer. During the Beijing Games, there were 400,000 online articles about the Olympics, with only 11,600 on the Paralympics. Too often, para athlete stories are told through a non-disabled lens, filtered through narratives of pity or framed solely around disability as inspiration, rather than honoring para voices on their own terms. Like every athlete, para athletes want to be seen.

When we asked Brenna if she had Paralympic role models growing up, she told us she didn’t even know the Paralympics existed until she was 18. Visibility — and the lack of it — matters.

During the last Winter Games, the Olympics had double the viewers of the Paralympics. How can young para women athletes dream if they don’t see a path forward?

When there is coverage about Paralympic athletes, women rarely receive in-depth profiles. A media analysis by the Women’s Sports Foundation found that while coverage of the Olympic Winter Games included stand-alone stories of men and women athletes and competitions, many of the articles published about Paralympians consolidated coverage into one article.

We wish the world could know the Paralympic women that we do, and that’s why we decided to work together. Dani knows firsthand what it’s like to train for Milan during the day while working for greater para athlete visibility at night. Jamie understands how the right story can move people from indifference to investment — expanding who feels seen, included, and compelled to care.

How many times have you heard of Brazil’s Aline Rocha, the only woman para cross-country skier from all of South America, who competed in the 2022 Winter Games? Aline never grew up seeing herself as an athlete — yet today, as one of the world’s best, she’s returning to the global stage to compete in Milan. Flame Bearers and Cultxtured are working to bring these stories to light.

The world stops with bated breath to hear from Tom Brady or LeBron James, and just their names alone are recognizable, without needing any qualifiers or context. When women para athletes like Dani step off the slopes, their stories don’t end. Where are the reporter questions about representation and visibility, about our dreams for the future and our advice for our younger selves?

Many para athletes have once wondered if there was a place for them in the sports they love. With greater visibility, Paralympic stories can move out of the shadows and into the spotlight where they belong. You have to see it to be it — especially for young girls watching the Paralympics for the first time this winter. We tell these stories for that moment of recognition: When they see someone who shares their experience and realize they, too, belong in this story. That spark can ignite a lifelong love, turning belief into passion — and into a profession. And that is a story worth telling.

Jamie Mittelman is the founder of Flame Bearers, a media production company championing the stories of extraordinary women athletes. Dani Aravich is a soon-to-be three-time Team USA Paralympian, co-founder of Culxtured, a media collective working to revolutionize how the world views para sports, and the co-host of a new video interview series, “Flame Bearers: Making it to Milan.”

• Team USA’s women’s hockey team won the gold medal with a 2-1 win over Canada in overtime Thursday. Megan Keller scored the winning goal in her final Olympic game. It was Keller’s “second gold medal” and that made her “the most decorated player in U.S. women’s hockey history.” Canada and the U.S. have “won every gold and silver medal” since women’s hockey became part of the Winter Games in 1998 (ESPN).
• I join host Austin Karp on this week’s SBJ Sports Media Podcast to discuss the Winter Olympics, my experience in Italy and news around the Games.
• Wondering how a major European city looks and feels during the Winter Games? Check out my video on the excitement and vibes around Milan.
• The second installment of my Winter Games roundtable features discussion on two key activations in Milan: Winter House and Casa Airbnb.
• The Winter Games could be an inflection point for the PWHL, whose players for the first time will be returning to a league that offers the salary and resources they need to help build the sport.

• Lon Rosen, who began his career as a Lakers intern and has deep ties to the franchise’s Showtime era, was named as the team’s president of business operations on Thursday, replacing Tim Harris, reports SBJ’s Tom Friend. Rosen has been the Dodgers’ EVP and CMO since 2012.
• NASCAR ended up with 7.5 million viewers for the Daytona 500 on Sunday afternoon on Fox, which is the best figure for any NASCAR event since the 2023 edition of the race, writes SBJ’s Austin Karp.
• CVS Pharmacy signed a pair of sponsorship agreements with U.S. Soccer and the NWSL, a significant expansion of its involvement in women’s soccer, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman. The brand is also adding team-level deals with the NWSL’s Seattle Reign and K.C. Current.
• Incoming NWSL expansion club Denver Summit FC landed its first uniform sponsor ahead of its inaugural season, signing Canvas Credit Union to a seven-year sleeve deal, notes Alex Silverman.
• The Tigers showed off a pair of alternative uniforms for the 2026 season that honor the 1984 World Series title team while also keeping the Olde English D on one of them, writes SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo.
• Wednesday’s edition of “SBJ Live” features a discussion of the state and future of women’s basketball with Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell, former player/NBRPA President/Servcom board member Rushia Brown, Overtime Head of Select Sascha Malas, and Upshot League Commissioner and former WNBA Commissioner and President Donna Orender.
• TGL begins the back half of Season 2 next week, and through eight matches, the league is averaging 508,000 viewers (Nielsen Big Data + Panel) across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, reports SBJ’s Josh Carpenter and Austin Karp.
• This week’s Genesis Invitational is not only celebrating the 100th edition of the tournament, but it’s also embodying L.A.’s resilience and renewal a year after the region’s devastating firestorm, writes SBJ contributor Robert Gray.
• Whoop signed a global deal with Scuderia Ferrari HP as its official health and fitness wearable sponsor, notes SBJ’s Joe Lemire.