Tom Kelly, recently retired spokesperson for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team, invites the public to take a peek Behind the Gold.
Behind the Gold is a new program facilitated by the Park City Performing Arts , and sponsored by the National Ability Center and the Alf Engen Ski Museum Foundation, where audiences get chances to see and hear Kelly talk with Olympic Gold Medalists in a casual “fireside chat.” where an audience will get a chance to see and hear Kelly talk with Olympic Gold Medalists in a casual “fireside chat” at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts.
“The beauty of this format is that it’s easy for the athletes to do, and in the course, if you do them well you can bring out so much more by guiding the athletes through a conversation,” he said. “It also becomes an experience for the audience because it’s like you become part of the conversation between the people on stage.”
The first of the series will feature Alpine ski racer Ted Ligety at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30, which will be followed by Paralympian sit skier Chris Waddell on Dec. 27, and Alpine ski racer Picabo Street on Feb. 28.
“They all have Park City ties but in different ways,” Kelly said. “Ted grew up here. Chris moved here during his career to train, particularly leading up to the 2002 Winter Games, and Picabo came here after her career to make a home and raise a family.”
All three athletes share one thing in common according to Kelly.
“They have these successful careers at the Olympics and Paralympics,” he said. “And these are part of the stories I want to tell in the community.”
With Ligety, Kelly plans to talk with the athlete and ask him about growing up in Park City.
“We’ll see who and what his influences were to become a ski racer, and what the 2002 Olympics did for him,” he said. “We’ll go through his 2006 Olympic experience where no one expected him to win a medal, much less a gold.”
The conversation will also touch on trials and tribulations, Kelly said.
“We’ll talk about the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and he’ll tell that story, and we’ll also tell the story of why it was important for him to come back to Sochi four years later to win the gold medal,” he said. “So with all of these things with success and failure, there will be all of these different emotions.”
Kelly will also bring up some recent happenings in Ligety’s life.
“Ted’s in a new era of his life right now,” he said. “He’s hooked up with a ski company called DPS Skis in Salt Lake, and he’s designing skis. As we speak he’s in Colorado testing out the skis.”
The evening will end with a Q and A, according to Kelly.
“We want to give the audience an opportunity to ask questions as well,” he said.
The same fireside chat format will apply to Waddell and Street, Kelly said.
A young Ted Ligety poses in his new Phenix jacket before hitting the slopes. Ligety, a Park City-based Olympic gold medalist, will help kick off the Park City Institute’s Behind the Gold series, moderated by Tom Kelly, recently retired spokesperson for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team, on Nov. 30.
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“I think people will find this an entertaining and informational evening,” he said.
The idea to create the Behind the Gold Series came through the friendship Kelly has with Park City Performing Arts Executive Director Ember Conley, whom he met when she was Park City School District Superintendent.
“Tom and I have been in Rotary together for years, and back in 2013 or 2014, I heard Tom do a presentation in Rotary,” she said. “You know Tom. He has that super melodic and amazing voice that just entrances you, and I had this idea that he needed to do a presentation for the Park City School District.”
The presentation was about teamwork.
“It was beautiful,” Conley said. “He would tell stories, show video clips and then come back to how we all could work together for this one goal, the common good.”
Conley connected Kelly with the Utah School Superintendent Association, and Kelly did several more of these sessions across the state. And he even did one in Mesa, Arizona, where Conley worked for a school district down there for a while.
“Tom has this wealth of knowledge and library, and as I heard these stories, I thought we need to do this on a bigger scale where people could hear these stories,” she said. “So, as I came on as executive director full time, it became the perfect time.”
Kelly and Conley began talking in earnest last spring about organizing the Behind the Gold series.
“We looked at different athletes to kick it off, and we landed on these three,” she said. “This all leads up to our 2034 Winter Olympics, and we’re going to film these discussions and keep a library as we lead up to the Games.”
Conley is drawn to the fact that the athletes Kelly will spotlight are local residents.
“They are our neighbors, and that brings us home to who we are as a culture,” she said. “These are amazing, smart and talented individuals who we know. And through Tom’s connections, we have another 18 Olympians within his reach.”
Kelly is happy that the series found a home with Park City Performing Arts.
“One of the many real pluses we have living in Park City is that we have a facility to bring in speakers and entertainers,” he said. “You could probably do this in Vail, because they have a nice facility, but other resort towns don’t. So we can be very thankful to Park City Performing Arts for what they bring to our community.”
Tom Kelly gave an update about the impact of the coming 2034 Winter Olympic Games. He said one of the largest reasons that the games are set to return is due to the facilities that are already in place, which included facilities at Utah resorts.
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Tom Kelly, recently retired spokesperson for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team, will moderate the Park City Institute’s Behind the Gold series, which is a sit-down discussion with Park City-based Olympians.
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Kelly also points out that Park City Performing Arts is a nonprofit.
“They have to make money to continue bringing in shows, but it just isn’t about that,” he said. “It’s about providing different types of content for people in our community.”
Park City Performing Arts Behind the Gold with Ted Ligety
- When: 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 30
- Where: Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, 1750 Kearns Blvd.
- Cost: $5-$55
- Web: parkcityinstitute.org