"It's a thrill," Volker said Friday.

Ranked seventh in the world in 1994 for her skill in the giant slalom, Volker was especially pleased when a television news broadcast Friday morning flashed the proposed ski plate image. "My oldest son, who is 5, said 'Mom, that's you.' That's the coolest," she said. "We'll definitely get the new one for the car."

The unusual idea of including on the new ski plate an image of a living person is the result of dissatisfaction among a group of historians and collectors who believe the state's vehicle identifiers have grown stale.

They found a willing sponsor for the 2007 Legislature in Sen. Dan Eastman, who agreed that Utah's plates are a bit dusty.

The Ski Utah plate was first issued in 1985 and the Centennial plate in 1992. But the Olympic plates, in circulation between 1998 and 2003 but still adorning many cars and trucks, have gotten the biggest negative reaction as they have aged, said Eastman, R-Bountiful.

"Out-of-state people come here and say, 'Why are you still touting the Olympics? It's over,' " he said.

Eastman's bill, SB73, would redesign the state's ski plate and retire the Delicate Arch centennial plates.

Scott Christensen, a historian in the LDS Church history office, was a principal proponent of changing the plate designs. To him, the image of Volker leaning into a hard racing turn "shows action, a person who's clearly enjoying her skiing experience."

Christensen, who with Deseret Morning News graphic designer John Clark is writing a book about the history of motor travel in Utah and the state's license plates, said the group wanted to include a photographic image of desert petroglyphs on the ski plates as a salute to the descendants of the ancient artists.

The Delicate Arch plate, in turn, would retain its graphic image of snowy mountains so that both plates encompass the state's geographic diversity. Both plates also would sport the state's new branding slogan, Life Elevated.

Images of the proposed plates show the state's name lettered in an Old West wanted-poster style, clearly visible from 100 feet as state law requires, said Brad Simpson, Division of Motor Vehicles director.

The plates also are designed to accommodate frames, which tend to decapitate the skier in the current "Greatest Snow on Earth" plates.

Should it pass, SB73 won't cost taxpayers extra money because the new designs would be imposed on the metal sheeting already in use for the plates, with the numbers picking up where they left off on the old designs, Simpson said.

Eastman's bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville, would require all the old plates to be issued before the new ones could be distributed. That could take another eight to 10 months, Simpson said.

Christensen said he and the others on the committee that chose the designs wanted the ski plate to show mountains with snowy peaks and the foothills melted off. But it was difficult to get the right photo because air pollution has been so thick and stubborn this winter.

A search of the state Historical Society's photo archive turned up a clean shot taken years ago by now-deceased photographer Hal Rumel.

"We were looking for just the right mountains to represent Utah. We were struggling to get the right kind of weather," Christensen said. "Frankly, it's been so hazy lately."