Park City • Joss Christensen and McRae Williams have been at each other’s sides since they were children, hitching rides to the ski resort after school.
Now the two Park City natives hope to make the trip to South Korea together for next year’s Olympics, where they wouldn’t mind standing side by side on the podium.
“We’ve been doing this together for 15-plus years,” the 26-year-old Williams said Tuesday, at the Olympic media summit at Park City Mountain Resort. “To still be cruising around with Joss and have that childhood friend by my side makes all the difference.”
In 2014, Christensen surprised with a first-place slopestyle finish at the Sochi Games and now carries with him the weight of expectation.
“It’s a completely different story this time for me,” Christensen said. “There are a lot more eyes on me this time around. I think that’s what helped me get to the top of the podium in Sochi; I felt no outside pressure besides the pressure I put on myself.”
Williams, meanwhile, hopes to follow his buddy’s path. Williams has an X-Games silver medal and a Freestyle World Championships gold, but is hoping to add to his resume during his first Olympic Games.
“I’m just stoked to give it my all,” he said. “I’m going to try to steal that dark horse role from Joss and bring another medal to Park City.”
(Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune) Freestyle skiing athlete McRae Williams speaks during the Team USA Media Summit at the Grand Summit Hotel in Canyons Village Tuesday, September 26, 2017.
Open minds
If Salt Lake puts forth a formal bid for the 2026 or 2030 Winter Olympics, it will require an OK from Los Angeles.
And as officials there prepare for the 2028 Summer Games, they will keep an “open mind” about that possibility but acknowledge it would be “complicated” for both L.A. and the U.S. Olympic Committee.
A bid for 2026 would be “complicated,” L.A. 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman said Tuesday. “Obviously, there are real challenges from a timing perspective, being two years before us. But I think our approach has been the Olympic Games, whether they be summer or winter, are good for American athletes. Our intent is always to be a good partner to the United States Olympic Committee and those American athletes.”
There are myriad economic concerns for organizers, including sharing ad revenue and the onus of preparing for multiple Olympics without first financially recuperating from one.
“Certainly before they formally bid, it will require a lot of conversations about how that would affect us, how that might create challenges, how that might create opportunities,” Wasserman said. “It’s certainly exciting to think about the Winter Games coming back too, but there’s a lot of work to be done between now and then.”
Winter Fest
When the 2018 Games kick off in Pyeongchang in February, some former U.S. Olympians will still be partying in Park City.
The USOC announced a 13-stop “Winter Fest” event in the run up to the Games. The event will stop in Park City on Feb. 10, the opening weekend of the Pyeongchang Olympics. A number of athletes, including skier Picabo Street, are scheduled to be in attendance. The free event will also feature a concert by bands Good Charlotte and Sleeping with Sirens.
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