Updated: Utah 2034 announces new leaders as a vice president departs

Four-time Olympic speedskater Catherine Raney Norman is leaving the organizing committee for Utah’s 2034 Winter Games.

The departure was described in a news release Wednesday as her deciding “to conclude her tenure” with the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games after being there from the start.

Raney Norman, who had been the organizing committee’s vice president of development and athlete relations, had served as chair of the bid committee and was the key force behind the Podium34 program that has raised more than $250 million for Utah’s next Winter Games.

“I put a lot into this. My heart is always there,” Raney Norman told the Deseret News, becoming emotional as she spoke of her pride in helping the state secure a second Winter Games two years ago and what that means for Utah youth.

Her role ended after organizers decided they were “going in a different direction, and looking to sort of build different capacities,” she said. “I wish them well in the direction that they’re going and hope that the work and the foundation that I laid gets to be built off of.”

Raney Norman said she’d taken off the past month “to spend some time with my family and look at what options are available,” but isn’t sure yet what’s next for her. “I love the Olympic and Paralympic movement. It’s who I am. It’s part of my identity. I hope to stay involved.”

The organizing committee’s CEO, Brad Wilson, a former Utah House speaker, said, “Utah 2034 extends its sincere gratitude to Catherine for her successful leadership through the bid process and her dedication to creating the groundbreaking philanthropic program known as Podium34.”

Wilson said Raney Norman’s “contributions have helped set a strong foundation for the organizing committee.”

Utah Legislature’s Abby Osborne, Olympian Julie Letai join Utah 2034

The changes for the organizing committee include new faces and new responsibilities.

Abby Osborne, chief of staff to House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, was announced Wednesday as the new vice president of impact, engagement and enterprise operations. Osborne is giving up her organizing committee board membership.

Utah 2034 Announces New Organizational Changes:

Abby Osborne has been named VP of Impact, Engagement, and Enterprise Operations, Darren Hughes has adopted the role of VP of Games Delivery, and Two-time Olympic short track speed skater Julie Letai has been named to the new role… pic.twitter.com/I96kQ1y5OP

— Utah 2034 (@utah2034) June 17, 2026

She told the Deseret News she will continue with the Utah Legislature through the end of July and start her job with the organizing committee on Aug. 1. Osborne said her filling the newly created position has been in the works for a couple of months.

Her responsibilities are to oversee the legacy left by the Games, such as government infrastructure projects. She said she’ll also handle “a lot of the operations pieces,” including all of the government relations and communications functions.

“I don’t see it as a shift in priorities at all,” Osborne said of the state-centric role. “The Games are a gift to future Utah. We have a chance, we have eight years, to craft and design what that gift is going to look like.”

She said the privately funded organizing committee, set to spend $4 billion on staging the Winter Games, is in the best position to coordinate a legacy that hopefully will lead to hosting “again and again and again.”

Other organizing committee changes include adding Julie Letai, a two-time Olympic speedskater, as athlete experience coordinator. Also, another organizing committee vice president, Darren Hughes, is moving from being over operations and planning to Games delivery.

Wilson, who worked with Osborne during his time in legislative leadership, said in a statement that from the start of the organizing committee, “we have continually evaluated how our team is structured to best support our work in preparing for the 2034 Winter Games.“

Both Osborne and Hughes “will bring great value to our organizational structure and will each play a vital role,” he said, adding that Letai “will have an opportunity to engage in our planning process now to help us best innovate on behalf of athletes for the Games in 2034.”

The news that the highest-ranking Olympian at the organizing committee was out surprised Olympic bobsledder Kaysha Love, who spent time with Raney Norman during Utah’s successful Winter Games bid.

“Whatever reason it was for her to depart, or to change direction, I’m sure it was in the best interest of not only herself. I know Cat very well and she’s not the kind of person that’s going to leave not only the athletes or people high and dry,” Love told the Deseret News.

She said Letai, who’s filling the new athlete experience coordinator job, is “a fantastic, not only athlete, but person.” Love said watching the organizing committee’s efforts “to try to put athletes first, to try to put the athletes into the community, has been really inspiring to me.”

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