Speaker 1: Attention, hockey fans. The US women's national team is facing
Speaker 1: off against Canada and the twenty twenty four to twenty
Speaker 1: five Rivalry Series, a five game competition featuring two fierce rivals,
Speaker 1: and you can be a part of the rivalry when
Speaker 1: they return to the ice Friday, November eighth at the
Speaker 1: Maverick Center. Join us to watch these teams as they
Speaker 1: showcase their highest level of women's hockey. You don't want
Speaker 1: to miss this exciting opportunity. Go to Maverick Center dot
Speaker 1: com to get your tickets. Now, that's Maverickcenter dot com.
Speaker 2: I want to welcome in the studio very special guests
Speaker 2: Derek Para, a two thousand and two Olympic speeds gating
Speaker 2: gold and silver medallist.
Speaker 3: You guys know Derek are you man? Good to see you,
Speaker 3: I see you.
Speaker 2: And we got Brendan Smith, marketing and Communications manager for
Speaker 2: the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.
Speaker 3: Brendan, how are you?
Speaker 4: Thanks for having us? Smeetz?
Speaker 2: Well, we were talking off air. We all have ties
Speaker 2: to the two thousand and two Games. Derek, you're the
Speaker 2: most famous by far, you actually won medals and now
Speaker 2: we get the games back. So let's just start big picture, Derek,
Speaker 2: start with you. You're a transplant, like a lot of
Speaker 2: people that came here for two thousand and two ended
Speaker 2: up staying here. What are your thoughts that we're going
Speaker 2: to have the same, you know, Winter Olympic experience almost
Speaker 2: three decades later.
Speaker 4: I'm excited.
Speaker 5: I was on the other side of it obviously as
Speaker 5: an athlete, but now to be on the flip side
Speaker 5: here as an administrator and seeing it all kind of
Speaker 5: come to place. And even I was in Paris when
Speaker 5: we got the awards, so it's been really exciting to
Speaker 5: see this happening and how it's kind of come to fruition.
Speaker 5: It's been a long time coming, a lot of great
Speaker 5: people doing a lot of great work. But I'm more
Speaker 5: excited about the athletes of today, the ten year olds,
Speaker 5: tavyoads that are out there right now in our facilities
Speaker 5: and other facilities around the state and the country, knowing
Speaker 5: that the Games will be in our home country in
Speaker 5: just nine little over nine years.
Speaker 2: Brennan tell me about the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation just
Speaker 2: from a thirty thousand foot view macro standpoint.
Speaker 4: Yeah, of course, Spence.
Speaker 6: So we've got three venues we have Utele them Biglobal
Speaker 6: wind Currents, we have Uta Olympic Parking Park City, and
Speaker 6: we have Soldier Hollo Nordic Center. And something we like
Speaker 6: to say is we're high performance by day and then
Speaker 6: community centers by night. So we got us speed skiing,
Speaker 6: US skiing, snowboard, US biathlon training in the morning. We
Speaker 6: have the Utah Hockey Club out at the Cernzovo as well,
Speaker 6: and then kind of as the day goes on, we
Speaker 6: have our learned escape programs, learn to ski, learn to
Speaker 6: buy athlon, learn to skeleton or bop sled, and people
Speaker 6: that are taking their first steps on snow or rice
Speaker 6: can come to us and learn these new skills and
Speaker 6: chase everything up to be an Olympian or just come
Speaker 6: out and hang out with us and learn something new.
Speaker 3: And Derek, you guys just won an award. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: we had tell me about it.
Speaker 4: MENI Impact to Board.
Speaker 5: It's a great honor and you recognize with the work
Speaker 5: we do in the community.
Speaker 4: We served last year.
Speaker 5: I think we served about thirty five hundred kids underserved
Speaker 5: kids through donations and private donors, and that in conjunction
Speaker 5: with all of our education programs we do in our facilities,
Speaker 5: bringing school groups out to try these different sports, exposing
Speaker 5: something new and just kind of build that confidence that
Speaker 5: I think a kid needs when they're growing up.
Speaker 2: So I would imagine, and Brennan will go to you
Speaker 2: on this. You know in my brain I played basketball, football, baseball.
Speaker 2: You know, my son basketball, soccer. So if there are
Speaker 2: parents out there listening and they have, you know a
Speaker 2: couple of little ones that might be interested in some
Speaker 2: of these winter sports, you guys are the spot where
Speaker 2: the kids can learn to kind of elevate their games
Speaker 2: at fair to sec one percent.
Speaker 6: Man, we've got everything from if you've never even laced
Speaker 6: up skates before, we can help you, or if you're
Speaker 6: trying to elevate kind of to that next level of
Speaker 6: something you're chasing, we got it for you. And we
Speaker 6: have scholarships as well for kids. So there's no barriers
Speaker 6: to entry when you're talking about our programs because we'll
Speaker 6: help you out. We'll get you started, and we've got skates.
Speaker 6: We've got everything you need to get going and try
Speaker 6: something new.
Speaker 2: So speed skating, hockey, figure skating, and curling.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 4: I think you'll have to ask him about curling.
Speaker 3: Do people even need to learn to curl. I'm serious.
Speaker 5: You'd be amazed at how many people come out to curl.
Speaker 5: We are typically sold out from October first to the
Speaker 5: end of April, every Friday and Saturday night because people
Speaker 5: want to learn how to curl.
Speaker 2: I don't mean to be obtuse here, but it always
Speaker 2: looks like you could just grab a couple of random
Speaker 2: dudes off the street and make a curling team.
Speaker 3: Is there an art to it?
Speaker 4: Sport?
Speaker 5: A lot of timing and balances involved. It's not too hard,
Speaker 5: you know my pinion to get to the house, the
Speaker 5: curling house, but to make moves like we're curling around
Speaker 5: stones and trying to score points. Okay, it's very strategically
Speaker 5: not to be a good chess player in a way.
Speaker 5: You're making moves that are going to come in effect
Speaker 5: three moves later. But people one don't realize how fun
Speaker 5: it is and two how hard it is.
Speaker 4: They appreciate what they see it on TV.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I need to just get some notions out
Speaker 2: of my head about the sport.
Speaker 4: Pansas.
Speaker 3: I'll always watched it. I feel like I think I
Speaker 3: could do that.
Speaker 2: What's it been like to have the hockey team around
Speaker 2: the hockey club around here.
Speaker 4: Spence has been awesome, man.
Speaker 6: I mean we have us speed skinning on the oval
Speaker 6: four hundred meters, we have ten of eleven world records
Speaker 6: that exist. And then we have the hockey club on
Speaker 6: our south sheet going to work and getting ready for
Speaker 6: this inaugural season. And you can feel that, like you
Speaker 6: can feel the energy people are coming in and watching
Speaker 6: them practice, but just that like that feeling of you
Speaker 6: have Team USA there. You have the most exciting new
Speaker 6: franchise we have in Utah and they're working alongside each
Speaker 6: other to get better and it's it's just a blast
Speaker 6: to watch man.
Speaker 4: You can feel that in the facility every day.
Speaker 3: Have you had a chance, Derek to interact with any
Speaker 3: of the players.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Actually, Robert Tuzzo asked me for a skin suit.
Speaker 5: Oh it was Halloween party. I got a photo if
Speaker 5: you want to see it. But he went as a
Speaker 5: speed skater. There was Halloween party for the team.
Speaker 2: That's awesome because I'll tell you what, they're just the
Speaker 2: nicest people.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, because I had a hockey experience growing up
Speaker 2: in a real hockey hotbed back in the Northeast and
Speaker 2: my father was with the Garden for a while, so
Speaker 2: I got to know a lot of the Rangers in
Speaker 2: the nineties, and you would not know that they're pro athletes.
Speaker 2: They're just sweet guys, you know, that's been my experience.
Speaker 2: They're talking to our kids.
Speaker 5: There's a funny story where a kid was at it
Speaker 5: one night when they were warming down, came up and
Speaker 5: asked one of the players. I didn't know the player was,
Speaker 5: but he was one of the players that was going
Speaker 5: between the NHL in the lower league, and he went
Speaker 5: up to him and said, so are you in the NHL.
Speaker 5: Are you a player of the NHL? And he kind
Speaker 5: of looked at the kid and goes, well, sometimes I am.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: The players laughed it up, and he gave the kid
Speaker 5: a stick, signed a stick, and I kind of went
Speaker 5: on his way.
Speaker 4: But there was a good.
Speaker 5: Vibe in the building having them in there, and they're
Speaker 5: very approachable, and it only adds to what the over
Speaker 5: really is.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: The Oval, to me is kind of an embodiment of
Speaker 2: what I believe put us in such a great spot
Speaker 2: to get the games back right because there are so
Speaker 2: many places and you know, Brian Gumbel Real Sports that show,
Speaker 2: unfortunately is no longer a thing because it's not on TikTok.
Speaker 3: You know that actually did sports journalism.
Speaker 2: They had a couple of so such fascinating episodes about
Speaker 2: Olympic cities around the world that did not maintain their venues,
Speaker 2: not because the citizens didn't want them maintain.
Speaker 3: But look, it's a long conversation the IOC.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe some government malpractice and such, but what
Speaker 2: do you think maintaining our venues, whether it's the Oval
Speaker 2: or up in Park City, you know, all over the place. Really,
Speaker 2: what do you think that did for our ability to
Speaker 2: get the Games back?
Speaker 4: I think it was a huge piece of it.
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't know how many countries ben and
Speaker 5: maybe able to tell you how many countries participate or
Speaker 5: practice in our venues every year that come and travel
Speaker 5: here and live here and move here to skate, skate
Speaker 5: or training our venues. So having our our venues in
Speaker 5: place already was already We're ahead of the game. There
Speaker 5: isn't that infrastructure we have to build. We were able
Speaker 5: to have that spirit that still lives here in the
Speaker 5: games help drive that for us of getting the Games back.
Speaker 4: And Brennan, you can speak us more about that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's it's always better to stay ready
Speaker 6: than get ready, and we're doing that every single day
Speaker 6: with If you walk into the venues at any time
Speaker 6: of the day, you can see action, you can feel
Speaker 6: that energy, you can feel that Olympic spirit. And like
Speaker 6: Derek said, we have over thirty other nations, not just
Speaker 6: the United States, that are coming to our three venues
Speaker 6: and training every every single day. And I think that's
Speaker 6: something that the next level when we're looking at the
Speaker 6: next ten years, we are we have the day to
Speaker 6: day Olympic spirit and legacy and operations down.
Speaker 4: The next part is.
Speaker 6: To elevate that and elevate what we can do around
Speaker 6: the world from Utah as a home base.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well said this guy's good at his job.
Speaker 2: All right, before I set you guys loose, either one
Speaker 2: of you can take this for any parent out there
Speaker 2: that's driving around and they've got you know, seven eight
Speaker 2: nine role that is showing a little bit of interest
Speaker 2: in speed skating hockey for sure, because we're just learning
Speaker 2: about it. And I think most people know where they
Speaker 2: can go sign up for junior jazz or like little
Speaker 2: League football or you know curling, respect how can they
Speaker 2: get more information as far as how you guys.
Speaker 5: Can help them out. You take Olympic Legacy dot org
Speaker 5: is our website. You can look at all of our
Speaker 5: programs bigger skating, speed skating, curling, hockey, both youth and
Speaker 5: adult in all cases. So yeah, and then you also
Speaker 5: up at our park Olympic Park and Soldier halloup facility.
Speaker 5: We've got all of our other two programs are right
Speaker 5: there online. You can choose what you want.
Speaker 2: You told me that you're playing a little hockey with
Speaker 2: like in an adult league.
Speaker 3: Yeah, directly, that feels unfair. Do you just skate around
Speaker 3: everybody like.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty fast in the puck?
Speaker 3: Well, you want a gold medal.
Speaker 4: Years ago. I don't have the stickhanudability that those guys do.
Speaker 5: So my main focus is just to smother anybody who
Speaker 5: has the puck that can just irritate them by being
Speaker 5: around them, or get the puck out of their hands
Speaker 5: to one of our players that I have probably thirty assists,
Speaker 5: maybe two goals.
Speaker 2: The goals will come. I'll give you the final word.
Speaker 2: What do you what other information you want to.
Speaker 6: Yes, Vince just we got another session starting on November
Speaker 6: twelfth and fourteenth for our Learned to skate. That's kind
Speaker 6: of our base level where if you want to play hockey,
Speaker 6: you want a speed skate, you want to figure skate,
Speaker 6: we start there. Like I said, just check out our
Speaker 6: information utah Olemmiclegacy dot org. We got a scholarship for
Speaker 6: you if you need it, and we'd love to see
Speaker 6: out there