Once a venue in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway will again be Wasatch County’s claim to fame in the upcoming 2034 Olympics. Six events are slotted to take place at Soldier Hollow: biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, para biathlon and para cross country skiing.Four other events — freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, snowboarding and para snowboarding — will be hosted in Summit County at Deer Valley Resort, Park City Mountain Resort and Utah Olympic Park. In both counties, Olympic venues are undergoing upgrades to meet modern standards for 2034. According to Luke Bodensteiner, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center general manager, the Midway Olympic venue is ahead of schedule. “A lot of the venues at Soldier Hollow are almost ready to go. We’re actually really capable of hosting the Olympics as it is,” Bodensteiner said.Preparations for the first major project — expanding and renovating the nordic center — began three years ago and is now complete. The next phase of improvements will happen over the next five or six years. First is the expansion of Soldier Hollow’s automated snowmaking system. Then, it’s building an additional two kilometers of new trails.According to Bodensteiner, the upgraded snowmaking system is a surefire way to “future-proof” Soldier Hollow’s Nordic skiing. Once the upgrades are made, he said the system will be more sustainable and efficient.“We’ll be able to make the entire Olympic trail system within a two-week window,” Bodensteiner said. The snowmaking project alone will cost nearly $7 million, but that pales in comparison to the costs of designing the venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics. The venue initially cost $22 million to construct. Today, that’s equivalent to about $38.5 million.Youth and Junior Biathlon Nationals were held at Soldier Hollow last month. Credit: Photo courtesy of Michael Ritucci PhotographyBefore Soldier Hollow’s construction, Midway was chosen as a venue location because it met altitude and environmental standards for the Utah-based 2002 Olympics. Most winter Olympic events are held at low or moderate altitude levels, and Bodensteiner said the limit has now changed where venues cannot be higher than 2,000 meters. Midway sits at about 1,700 meters. Bodensteiner said that the consistent snowpack levels and that Soldier Hollow is part of Wasatch Mountain State Park made it an easy choice for an Olympic venue again in 2034. Since its spotlight moment in 2002, Soldier Hollow has kept up with hosting national and world-cup level competitions, as well as providing local accessibility to cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. In the summer, Soldier Hollow is host to an international sheepdog competition, which sees competitors from 19 countries and more than 13,000 spectators. Bodensteiner said Soldier Hollow hosts up to eight biathlon competitions annually with one national-level competition a year and a world-cup level competition every five years or so. This year, the venue is gearing up for the cross country junior national championships.The Nordic center also has about 500 kids who participate in ski programs.“I can see that number going up as kids get more interested in the Olympics. … We’ve expanded the venue into mountain bike competitions as well,” Bodensteiner said. “I think one of the things that the community appreciates is it brings a lot of people to the area. Holding these events gives a real economic boost to the Heber Valley.” The city of Midway, affectionately dubbed “Little Switzerland” by locals, saw a boom of tourism with the 2002 Olympics and up to 99,000 spectators at the peak of the Winter Games. That was when Midway had half the population it does now with about 2,560 residents total. And Midway’s involvement in the Olympics is building. As of Sept. 14, 2023, the U.S. Biathlon announced its intention to relocate headquarters from New Gloucester, Maine, to Soldier Hollow. Soldier Hollow’s start and shooting area bustles with competitors in Dec. of 2018. Credit: Park Record file photo by Tanzi Propst“We are excited to expand our footprint westward and join the Utah Olympic Community,” U.S. Biathlon President and CEO Jack Gierhart said in a press release. “We are looking forward to engaging with the greater Heber Valley and Utah community and expanding our support of the vibrant and growing biathlon communities around the country.”They completed the move in summer 2024. U.S. Biathlon Communications Manager Sara Donatello said that by relocating headquarters to Midway, there’s more stake in each of the biathlon hubs around the country. Now U.S. Biathlon’s national team is based in Lake Placid, New York, and the junior national team is based in Bozeman, Montana. “The Western region has a thriving Nordic community and a growing biathlon population, so moving our headquarters to Soldier Hollow allows us to more effectively support and grow our clubs and development programs,” Donatello said. As far as the 2034 Olympics go, Donatello said that Soldier Hollow has “done a fantastic job keeping the 2002 Olympic venues at Olympic standards. Donatello said that could be seen at the 2024 Soldier Hollow BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon, which saw more than 11,000 spectators during the three-day event. “Utah has the means to host the world again and we applaud the bid committee’s work to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games back to the U.S.!” Donatello said. “We will see the release of the next international biathlon calendar this spring, and expect to see Soldier Hollow back on the IBU stage in the years leading up to 2034.”The post Soldier Hollow will again be an Olympic hot spot appeared first on Park Record.