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One of the most lasting lessons organizers of Utah’s 2034 Winter Games learned during Italy’s Olympics may have come from seeing some paper plates proudly displayed on a wall in a Milan classroom.

The plates were part of a program by the organizers of the recently concluded 2026 Winter Games to engage school children in the region by encouraging them to re-create a variety of Olympic-related items.

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There were elaborate replicas of the Games’ gold, silver and bronze medals, cauldron that held the Olympic flame, pictograms depicting individual sports, and even carefully detailed copies of artwork showcasing athletic feats.

But what stood out was something else, a set of ordinary paper plates with all but the rims cut away that had been arranged in the shape of the iconic symbol of the Olympics, the five interlocking blue, yellow, black, green and red rings.

“It doesn’t take a lot to have a big impact,” said Catherine Raney Norman, the vice president for development and athlete relations for the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

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The art project, “literally, just small, colored plates in the colors of the rings, that’s how they made the Olympic rings,” Raney Norman, a four-time Olympic speedskater, said. “It’s very simple right? So I think it’s OK for us to lean into simplicity.”

That means tapping into “our families and our schools to help as well,” she said, as Italian parents and educators enthusiastically did, noting that “there’s a lot of ambition” surrounding what can be done in Utah to involve children in the Olympics.

Even as chair of the bid committee that brought Utah a second Winter Games, Raney Norman was pitching what was being called “Project 29,” a plan to offer Olympic sports opportunities to schools in each of the state’s 29 counties ahead of 2034.

A portion of the now more than $250 million in private donations already raised by the organizing committee through its unique “Podium34″ program is expected to go towards the education program.

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“Our hope is to execute, or at least pilot on, an education initiative as quickly as we can. But we also want to make sure that it’s set up for success,” Raney Norman said, adding it doesn’t need to be all that complicated.

“My biggest lesson from Milan-Cortina is, simplicity is fine. Really, like it’s OK to just do paper plates. Simplicity is OK in that it’s how you build that experience,” she said. “We don’t have to overthink. It’s easy to overthink when you’re planning a mega sporting event.”

Milan-Cortina’s Olympic education program was a “huge success,” with more than 1.5 million largely grade-school children participating, said Darren Hughes, the organizing committee’s vice president for operations and planning.

Hughes, a veteran of more than a dozen Olympics since working at Utah’s first Winter Games in 2002 kicked off a consulting career, said he was still surprised by the program’s effect on the community.

“They did this coolest little activation. They basically made an Olympic museum in the school. The tour guides were the students and they delivered the tours in both English and Italian,” Hughes said. “Each of the classrooms had contributed something to this museum.”

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Touring the work of the students “was actually really emotional,” he said.

The reason? It was a chance for the school to feel a sense of “ownership over the Games, somehow, or belonging to the Games,” he said. “These are school kids who might not have otherwise had an opportunity to connect to the Games … but they all had the Olympic spirit.”

High bar for Utah’s 2034 Winter Games

There already are big expectations for Utah’s next Olympics, which also carry a big price tag, $4 billion, money that is all anticipated to be raised from private sources including the sale of broadcast rights, sponsorships and tickets.

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The first Winter Games held in the state, in 2002, were widely viewed as one of the most successful ever, overcoming the impacts of both an international bribery scandal and the deadly Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the U.S.

The International Olympic Committee has set the bar high, with a top official declaring after Utah organizers made their first formal presentation in Italy that with so much already in place for 2034, there’s plenty of time to find ways to improve the Games.

“We have all the conditions for these Games to be outstanding,” the IOC’s Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, said at the meeting, urging organizers not to plan at this stage but instead to, “Think about innovations. Think about legacy. Think about elevate.”

And this time around, it’s the state, not Salt Lake City, serving as the official host. Gov. Spencer Cox and legislative leaders have made it clear they expect the entire state to be involved even though the Games will be held largely along the Wasatch Front.

Italy’s Games are a much different story, the first to have two official hosts, Milan, one of Italy’s largest cities, and Cortina, a mountain resort several hundred miles away that was the site of the 1956 Winter Games.

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The distance between venues in those and other locations scattered across Northern Italy required six separate villages to house athletes and made it difficult for spectators to see multiple sports due to what’s been described as an “emotional experience” getting around.

Italy’s decision to emphasize its iconic skiing and other venues despite how widespread they were meant many spectators headed to a single location and stayed put rather than attempting to travel to see other events.

Utah will have a much smaller footprint, with a single athletes village located once again at the University of Utah, no more than an hour away from any venue. But that comes with bigger crowds, especially since organizers plan to sell about twice as many tickets.

Kelsey Berg, the organizing committee’s director of government relations, said she’s “grateful that we have some different challenges” than Italian organizers faced although “it will be a challenge to have everyone in one spot.”

For Berg, who works closely with state and local officials, a key goal for the 2034 Games is a simple one, limiting interruptions in day-to-day activities. While that was never going to be easy, it’s clearly going to be harder than it was in Italy.

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“A benefit of the broader, more spread out Games is it doesn’t seem like it’s much of a impact,” she said. “Whereas here, obviously, we’ll have much more of a bigger impact of moving people around for the Games because it will be so compact.”

The governor and others who traveled to Italy to observe the 2026 Games were able to see how to continue to run services including those that “aren’t the most flashy, exciting things,” like trash pickup, when roads are shut down to accommodate Olympic traffic.

“Life still continues,” Berg said. “For residents, you want it to be a good experience. You don’t want it to be an obstacle … because it upends so much of their daily lives. It’s how do you have them participate and yet it be a blessing at the same time.”

In the end, Utahns will get out of the Games what they put in, she said.

“Everyone will do the Games their own way,” Berg said, just like they do for an event like Midway’s annual Swiss Days. “Some love it because they engage, they volunteer, they’re just willing to accept the traffic and the people” while others want to avoid it entirely.

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It’s important to government officials that both of the options work for Utahns, she said.

Berg said that’s “honestly because what we need is that public support to be able to host again. So if it just becomes a nuisance, you’re not going to have the general support and elected leaders reflect their constituents. … We can’t do it on our own.”

Utah’s Olympic pressure

Fraser Bullock, the organizing committee’s president and executive chair, acknowledged the expectations. Bullock, who was the chief operating officer for the 2002 Games and the leader of the bid effort, said that comes with experience.

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“Utah 2034 is viewed very positively, partly because of the relationships that have been built over the decades, partly because of the trust they have in us,” he said. “But they’re also looking to us to help advance the movement of the Olympics and the Paralympics.”

That’s an opportunity as well as an obligation, Bullock said, and it adds pressure.

“It doesn’t mean we have to be bigger and grander,” he said, noting finding ways of doing more with less is also important. “There are many areas we can look at in terms of enhancing the delivery of the Games while being more efficient.”

Those include broad areas like technology as well as solutions to specific issues, Bullock said, like better utilizing the free seats set aside for athletes, IOC members, sport officials and others in what’s called the Olympic family that were only about half full at the Milan-Cortina Games.

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Such improvements, though, would take place behind the scenes and organizers have a lot to live up to in terms of what the public sees.

“Let’s note that 2002 was a spectacular success and if we match that, we’ve done a great job. But of course, we aspire to be different and exciting and dynamic,” Bullock said, adding that even equaling what was accomplished at Utah’s first Olympics is still “a big undertaking.”

That doesn’t mean a repeat of 2002. With 40% more events in 2034, including new big air skiing and snowboarding competitions that will require a massive temporary jump to be built in downtown Salt Lake City, that couldn’t happen anyway.

Italy’s embrace of its widespread Games demonstrated the importance of focusing on strengths. After Paris staged an extravagant show throughout the 2024 Summer Games, Italy scaled back, stressing sustainability.

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Yet the 2026 venues had unique personalities, created by everything from situating seating to frame stunning views to sport production, the music, videos and other entertainment provided to engage fans before, during and after competitions.

All that combined “to create the excitement, the great spectator experience,” Bullock said, showcasing both the venue and the sport. “There’s an excitement and a vibe … that is really special. It’s not just the competition. It’s the whole experience of being there.”

Italy’s Games also immersed fans in their country’s culture, he said, allowing it “to shine through everywhere we went,” not just in the Opening Ceremonies that typically serve as a showcase for an Olympic host.

“You expect that flair to be there. But with the people, you could feel that Italian hospitality, that was spectacular, the friendliness of the people and their willingness to help in every way with the beautiful Italian accents. It was great,” Bullock said.

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In 2034, he said the United States will be celebrated along with Utah.

“We need to obviously stay true to Utah, its history, its values, its culture, but also recognize that we’re part of a great country,” Bullock said. “The U.S. is the host country and we need to recognize that.”

It’s Utah, though, that much is expected of in 2034.

“We had tons of pressure in ‘02 because we hadn’t done it before,” Bullock said. “This time around, yes, we know what to do because we’ve done it before. But it doesn’t change the magnitude of the task, which is a ton of work by a lot of dedicated people.”

Several dozen survivors of sexual assault and advocates celebrated new Utah laws they say will make a difference, including one banning law enforcement and prosecutors from asking survivors to take a polygraph examination.

Advocates say subjecting survivors to polygraph tests can further traumatize them, and the Democratic lawmaker behind the law said she was motivated by hearing the story of a Utah man who accused his counselor of touching him inappropriately. The man, identified only by the pseudonym Andrew, decided to sit for a polygraph, only to have the results say he was lying, said House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City.

“That polygraph test came back as he could be being deceitful. It devastated him,” Romero told a group of several dozen survivors and advocates at the Capitol Wednesday. “It broke his heart, because he felt like he wasn’t being believed.”

Polygraph tests are not considered to be reliable in forensic, legal or employment settings, according to the American Psychological Association, which said the rate at which they incorrectly label a truth as a lie is unknown.

Romero has tried to run some version of the polygraph bill for several years in a row before finally getting it across the finish line. It was signed by the governor last week and will take effect May 6.

“I think what really motivated me to continue working on that bill was Andrew,” the minority leader said. “He reached out to me and shared his story, and it really touched me, and I knew that I couldn’t let him down.”

Romero spoke at an annual event to kick off Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, as she and others urged Utahns to sign a statewide pledge to believe people who report being sexually assaulted.

While many survivors don’t report being assaulted to law enforcement, Dr. Julie Valentine, who leads the Start by Believing campaign in Utah, said progress has been made. In 2008, only about 12% of survivors formally reported the abuse they endured. Now, that number is just over 25%.

Former Gov. Gary Herbert officially designated Utah as a “Start by Believing” state in 2015.

“Eleven years ago, Utah made a commitment to change the way we respond when someone finds the courage to share that they have experienced violence or abuse — a commitment to listen, a commitment to respond with compassion and a commitment to believe,” Valentine said. “Today, we are here to honor that commitment and to strengthen it.”

Shelby Lofton, KSL

She said many victims seek help from family members or friends, even if they don’t ultimately come forward to law enforcement. By changing the culture of how regular people respond to reports, Start by Believing aims to increase the likelihood of formal reporting and seeking professional care.

“There were some, when we first introduced Start by Believing, that felt that, ‘Well, there’s a lot of false reports in sexual assault, and we’re going to encourage all this false reporting,” Valentine said. “We have research that shows that false reporting of rape is the same as other crimes. It’s about 2-8%, no more. … So, in dispelling that false myth, that was a hurdle to overcome.”

Valentine and Romero praised additional funds the Legislature appropriated for the sexual assault helpline operated by the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault but say there is still more work to be done.

HB459 would have ended mandatory reporting of rape and sexual assault when a victim seeks health care, something Valentine said sometimes prevents some survivors from coming forward to get help.

The bill was introduced but never considered.

Romero would also like to establish an affirmative consent law in Utah, which would require partners to explicitly agree to engage in sexual acts. It would flip the common standards of “no means no” and replace it with a standard of “yes means yes.”

She has run similar legislation to do just that in previous years but said she still gets “a lot of resistance.”

“The next step is consent,” Romero said. “I just don’t know if we’re ready as a state or as a country to have those conversations.”

The Utah Jazz are signing Bez Mbeng to a two-year contract, according to Shams Charania via Mbeng’s agent.

This comes after hearing from Sarah Todd that Mbeng would be signed through the end of the season.

This is great news for Mbeng, who brings defensive intensity to the Jazz on the perimeter. It’s a sign of a couple of things for the Jazz. The first being they are looking to solidify their guard depth. The other being a clear focus on improving defensively. It’s well known that Mbeng was a great defender in college, and it’s clear the Jazz are hoping he can continue to improve as a defensive prospect. As Todd mentions, Summer League will be next for Mbeng, who now has a chance to prove he’s an NBA player. In his short time with the Jazz, the effort is definitely there. The question for Mbeng now is, does the production follow?

A phone call from last fall stays with Sherry Huang, a Utah nurse who cares for those seeking medical attention after being sexually assaulted. Huang didn’t know who the voice belonged to, but it sounded panicked. 

“She wouldn’t even tell me her name. She wouldn’t give me any information, because she was so scared of law enforcement finding out, and she did not want to report,” Huang recalled Wednesday.  

She encouraged the patient, who had disclosed she was pregnant and bleeding, to go to a hospital for scans and medication. But if Huang and her colleagues treated the caller, they couldn’t promise not to tell the police. 

Utah is the last state in the nation still requiring health care providers to report the names, contact information, injuries and whereabouts of adults who undergo rape exams, said Julie Valentine, a longtime sexual assault nurse examiner and a professor of nursing at the University of Utah.

Such mandatory reporting laws are commonplace when it comes to abuse of children and vulnerable adults. But Utah’s law applies to everyone, Valentine said, including adults who do not wish to file a police report or pursue criminal charges against a perpetrator. 

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Valentine was among those urging lawmakers to change that this year, describing the current law as a barrier to health care for many. The bill, HB459, failed to gain traction during the 2026 Legislature, an outcome Valentine described as “heartbreaking.”

The measure faced pushback from the Utah Chiefs of Police Association, which didn’t provide comment for this story in response to multiple requests. 

The change would have allowed Utahns to choose whether to notify law enforcement after the exam, in which specially trained medics like Valentine and Huang primarily focus on identifying injuries and coordinating treatment. If a patient so chooses, they also collect samples that are sometimes later used as evidence. The exams must be done within six days of an assault, and at that early stage, Valentine noted, many aren’t certain if they want to involve police. 

Valentine anticipates nurses could get more victims in their doors for an exam if Utah were to change its law, and in turn, those patients would be more likely to opt to report to law enforcement. She said Utah’s on its own after Michigan recently changed its policy to join the rest of the states and the U.S. military in leaving the choice to patients.  

“We are outside of the norm — way outside,” Valentine said. 

She and Huang joined advocates and lawmakers at the state Capitol on Wednesday, a national day of awareness and advocacy against sexual assault. They cheered the passage of a new law banning polygraph tests for survivors of alleged sexual crimes and approval of a yearly allocation of $300,000 to keep a helpline for survivors staffed and running. But they also said there’s more to be done. 

Utah’s top Democrat in the House of Representatives and a longtime sponsor of legislation addressing sexual assault, Rep. Angela Romero, told Utah News Dispatch she plans to look into the issue this summer and discuss it with police and health care providers. 

“This is definitely something I’m interested in exploring,” said Romero, of Salt Lake City. 

The bill’s sponsor in the 2026 Legislature, Republican Rep. Tyler Clancy, is leaving the job for a different post helming the state response to homelessness.

Romero sponsored a 2017 law mandating the testing of sexual assault evidence kits that were collecting dust in Utah police stations. She said after the state solves one problem, it often learns of other related issues that need attention.  

In a 2025 report, researchers at Wichita State University in Kansas wrote that the lack of anonymity under laws like Utah’s may discourage people from seeking medical care after they’re assaulted. 

And while it’s technically not out of compliance with federal law, the report says, Utah’s law may go against the spirit of the Violence Against Women Act, which says a person can’t be required to help police investigate just because they received a sexual assault exam.  

Huang, the nurse, said she and her colleagues try to restore a patient’s sense of agency by obtaining consent in the course of the exam, but the law conflicts with that approach. From what she gathered, the patient she spoke with on the phone last fall did not go to a hospital — an outcome she attributed to Utah’s policy. 

“If we didn’t have that, then I think she would have, for sure, just gone in and gotten the help that she needed for her and her baby,” Huang said. 

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The New York Giants are hosting Utah offensive tackle Spencer Fano on a top-30 pre-draft visit, reports NFL analyst Ryan Fowler.

Fano, a 6-foot-5 1/2, 311-pound tackle from Spanish Fork, Utah, enjoyed a standout college career with the Utes. As a true freshman in 2023, he started all 13 games at left tackle, allowing just 2.0 sacks and earning first-team Freshman All-American honors.

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Fano followed with first-team All-Big 12 selections in 2024 and 2025, capping his senior season as the Outland Trophy winner, Polynesian College Football Player of the Year, and a unanimous All-American.

Scouts praise Fano’s high-level athleticism, quick feet, and loose hips, which allow him to mirror rushers effectively and excel in move-based blocking schemes. His NFL comparison is to Minnesota Vikings tackle Brian O’Neill.

While he possesses strong hand quickness and run-blocking experience, areas for development include adding core strength and improving pad level to sustain blocks against NFL power.

With three years of starting experience at both tackle spots, Fano projects as a potential early-round pick capable of becoming a solid NFL starter.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: New York Giants hosting Utah OL Spencer Fano on top-30 visit

The Jazz have been all business for Tanking and Co™ all of March. In fact, before tonight, they’d lost 10 of their last 11 games, which included a loss against Denver back in Colorado. The Nuggets, on the other hand, have subtly held an 8-2 record with the league’s second-longest winning streak.

Despite the annual tomfoolish custom of April 1st, there are n tricks tonight; Utah was flat-out defeated on their home floor with a good old-fashioned 130 -117 loss. There were highs. There were lows. There were Jokic no-look passes that dissociate with the external world. As Denver skipped across Salt Lake City before heading back next door, the Jazz decisively fell behind by falling out of a potentially gritty, high-intensity basketball game — they tend to love those.

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Utah put the final nail in the coffin after taking out their sole Jokic-stopper, that would be Elijah Harkless — a scrappy 6’3” guard that puts out his best Scrappy-Doo impression each night. Other than that, fans saw all the usuals on the injury report.

The Nuggets were at near-full form, with the exception of Spencer Jones and Zeke Nnaji. This is probably going to be a regular occurrence the Jazz will have to deal with for any franchise that isn’t currently outside of the Playoff picture.

It seems apparently that the entire Jazz defensive strategy revolved around one Elijah Harkless, as they looked completely helpless while digging themselves into an early 3-17 hole, with Denver, or just Jamal Murray, raining triple after triple. Murray hit 3-3 from beyond the arc just over 90 seconds into the first quarter. I can’t believe this is a real thing I have to type, but 8 of their first 9 field-goal makes had come from beyond the arc. Not only that, they hit them at a 61.5% rate. What the actual heck is going on in the mountains? Nuggets closed the quarter outscoring Utah 39-28, pushing their lead to 11. Jamal Murray sealed the first 12 minutes off with a half-court heave that could only happen in an area outside of time and space, otherwise known as wherever the Jazz are playing.

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The Jazz supposedly held Jokic to 2 field-goals in the first half, but everyone else on the Nuggets did most of the damage. Flip (19 points, 7-11 field-goals) and Brice (18 points, 7-10 field-goals) accounted for 68% of the Jazz points in the first half. The next best scorer scored 7. Jamal Murray continued to beat a man already down, matching his career-best for three-pointers in a half with 5. Bruce Brown beat his personal best of 4 steals in a half. You get a career-high! You get a career-high! Everybody gets a career-high! Nuggets were high and mighty with their 68-54 lead on Utah’s home floor.

Nikola Jokic canned a triple-double with 14-17-10 before the final 12 minutes even rolled open. Nuggets had 49 rebounds, 35 of them being defensive, compared to Utah’s 36 total rebounds.

The Jazz had chipped away several times in this game, but none of them mattered in any significant way. They got as close as 4 points of the Nuggets’ lead with 9:41 in the fourth quarter, but Denver quickly put a stop to that and continued to steamroll as they had been doing. But I have to note, Denver really doesn’t do enough to prevent open shots on the defensive end; imagine if Lauri or Keyonte were hitting those shots.

Brice Sensabaugh led all scorers with 28 in this one, many of which came from a 10-point entourage in the first quarter. The former Buckeye has been an explosive 20-point-per-game scorer for the majority of March. Five Jazz players in total crossed over the 10+ point mark.An

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Another Jazz draftee to enjoy was Kyle Filipowski, who netted 25 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists on 9-15 shooting in 31 minutes. Flip did his best and fiercely attacked premier rim-protector Nikola Jokic at the rim, which subsequently led to his benching when the Jazz got too close to the flame.

Jamal Murray enjoyed a strong night, as he usually does against Utah. He averaged 35 points per game, 7.8 assists per games and 4.8 rebounds in the Nuggets’ clean 4-0 sweep against the Jazz this season.

Up Next

Utah drops to 21-56 with this loss and lines up their next matchup in Houston on Friday night.

Camping season is kicking off in Utah, and with it comes a fresh set of guidelines for visitors heading into one of its 46 scenic state parks. Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway or a longer stay, understanding the rules and regulations will help ensure a more enjoyable experience in Utah’s outdoors.