Recently, several officials from the Ogden area participated in the International Olympic Committee’s Observers Programme where they attended the Games to get an inside look at how the events are conducted.

Among them was Snowbasin Resort Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Davy Ratchford.

“I was with the GMs of the other ski areas — Deer Valley, Park City and myself,” he said. “While I was there, we were with the folks from the France (2030) Winter Games, the LA Summer Games, the Brisbane Summer Games and we were able to attend events and meetings and have some incredible access and time with the organizers of the Milan-Cortina games, or MICO.”

He said it was a very informative visit.

“They were gracious hosts,” he said. “They gave us a ton of information — the good, bad and ugly of their games — and I learned a ton.”

Ratchford said one of the biggest takeaways is that Utah has a major geographic advantage when it comes to the 2034 Winter Olympics.

“Almost everything will be an hour from a central hub in Salt Lake,” he said. “Even though everything was done very well over in Italy, we are just set up to do things in a much better way and an effective way and an efficient way.”

He said some events required a more than five-hour drive to reach in Italy.

Another difference that Ratchford picked up on while in Italy is how accessible the various ski venues were during the 2026 Olympics and the plans for Utah’s resorts in 2034.

“The properties were closed to the guests; it was just for the Olympics,” he said. “That is not the way that we will be doing things at any of the mountains, whether it’s Deer Valley, Park City or Snowbasin. We will be open to the public, we will have skiing and riding just like normal and we will have an Olympic event.”

He added that observing the men’s Alpine ski events in Bormio, Italy, also drove home the scale of what Utah 2034 will entail.

“Over there, they had men and women separated at two different locations several hours apart,” he said. “At our winter Games, they’ll be combined at Snowbasin. Bormio had maybe 3-4,000 people there watching the event and it was a great environment, but we’ll be four times the size of that. Our scale is just much, much bigger.”

Ratchford said attendees of the program got behind-the-scenes looks at how events were conducted throughout the week the group was there.

“We were nonstop from morning until night,” he said. “We did not get any rest at all; we were moving from location to location and meeting to meeting. The Observer’s Programme is not for the faint of heart. It is a lot of effort and work, but I’m definitely not complaining because we got to learn and be witness to some incredible athletic events and see people competing at the highest level.”

He said some of the biggest assessments going forward will be access to Snowbasin Resort and technology to implement.

Ratchford said he will likely be attending the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps but wasn’t 100% sure at this time.