Fourth grader Miriya Petersen was clearly thrilled to have a role Wednesday in kicking off Washington Elementary School’s participation in a newly launched education initiative from Utah’s 2034 Winter Games.
“It was pretty cool but I was also a little bit nervous because I was talking in front of the whole school,” she said after asking Paralympian snowboarder Joe Pleban about his sport with an audience that included International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry.
The 9-year-old said she recognized it was her “one and only chance” to be part of the program celebrating Olympic values with everything from battery powered tea lights symbolizing the Olympic flame to Utah’s first lady, Abby Cox, talking about the importance of reading.
Having the Olympics’ first woman and first African leader there also was “pretty cool,” Miriya said.
“I do like how they were talking about dream big, like what you want to do, you should be able to do,” the grade-schooler dressed in turquoise said. For her, that means getting better at gymnastics and maybe even giving ice skating a try.
Coventry, who began her daylong visit to the state by meeting privately with Gov. Spencer Cox and other state and local leaders at the Governor’s Mansion, told the students about traveling around the world to compete as a swimmer for Zimbabwe at five Olympic Games.
“That’s something that sport does,” the two-time gold medalist said, listing excellence, friendship and respect as key Olympic values. “One of the cool things that I got to experience being an athlete was making friends from all around the world.”
She got a big cheer from the eager grade-schoolers when she asked if they were excited about the state hosting a second Winter Games in 2034. “Do you ski?” she asked one of the children, adding, “Maybe we’ll be watching you at the Utah Olympics.”
Like many of the school’s guests, Coventry waved a small paper American flag throughout the assembly. In a statement, the governor said she is “an impressive leader and we look forward to working with her on the upcoming Games.”
Olympic bobsledder Hunter Powell, who also participated in the school assembly, was also impressed with Coventry. He said having “the head of this organization that everybody knows to be here for one of the small little elementary schools in Utah, I mean, that’s as cool as it gets.”
The Olympics are “the biggest sports event in the world. It’s the biggest international event in the world,” Powell said. “I don’t know anything else that brings so many countries and nations together, where everybody’s rallying behind it. It’s one peaceful organization.”
Before leaving the state, Coventry toured Utah Olympic Park near Park City, greeted players from the state’s only all-girls hockey organization practicing at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex and mingled with Utah 2034 officials at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.
At the sports complex’s Steiner ice arena, Coventry surprised the two Utah Lady Grizzlies teams on the ice by announcing what is a $5,000 donation from the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in connection with Utah Youth Sports Giving Day.
The teen players whooped and slapped their hockey sticks on the ice at the news before posing for a picture on the ice with the IOC president. Peyton Marcum, 17, said the attention to their often overlooked sport was “absolutely phenomenal and we are so grateful.”
The Tier 1 right wing player from Anchorage, Alaska, said she also appreciated seeing a woman heading up the IOC. “I don’t even know her and I’m so proud of her,” Marcum said. “She deserves every ounce of respect that she gets.”
Competing in the Olympics for Team USA, she said, is “obviously a dream, as I know it is for all the girls here. That would just be a crazy opportunity.” Wednesday’s visit by Coventry and Utah officials, Marcum said, made it feel “a step closer.”
Coventry, who did not take questions from the media during what was described as an informal visit, has not been to Utah since teaching a swimming clinic here years ago. Elected last year to lead the Switzerland-based IOC, she is likely to still be president in 2034.
Despite a long trp to Utah from Japan, Coventry seemed to be enjoying Utah, telling the Deseret News at one point, “we’re having so much fun.”
In comments released by the Utah 2034 organizing committee, Coventry said her message to Utah’s youth is “have really big dreams, try new things and make really good friends along the way.”
Spending time with schoolchildren “is some of the best part of what I do,” she said. “We all start somewhere. And I remember, when I was growing up, I started playing lots of different sports at school. ... That’s really where the community, the love and the passion grew from.”
After her stop at the ice rink, Coventry summed up the day in a statement, saying she was struck that “Utah’s Olympic legacy isn’t sitting behind glass — it’s out here on the ice and in buzzing venues throughout their communities.”
The hockey team members “weren’t even born when the Games were here in 2002, yet they are training in a rink where Olympians trained during those Games and imagining what 2034 might mean for them,” she said.
“That is what legacy should do: keep opening doors for the next generation.”
