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PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — Anti-ICE protests continued Tuesday in Salt Lake and Utah counties following the fatal United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Saturday.

More than 100 Kearns High School students walked out of class shortly before 1 p.m. and marched to the Kearns Library.

“This is so important because we just wanted to make a change because there’s been so much violence with ICE,” Kearns High School student Charlie Robinson said. Students at Bingham High School in South Jordan also held a similar demonstration.

In Provo, dozens of demonstrators protested outside of Senator John Curtis’ (R-Utah) office ahead of a Senate appropriations bill that would provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) more money.

“We are here to make sure that he hears Utahns and knows that we expect him to vote no against the upcoming Senate appropriations vote,” protester Sarah McConkie said. “What’s at stake is more funding for ICE, DHS. Given everything that has happened in Minneapolis, right now we can’t imagine anyone voting to give them more money and more power to carry out terror on that community.”

If Congress fails to pass that bill on January 30, it will lead to another partial government shutdown.

On Monday, Curtis posted a statement about the shooting on X, calling for an independent investigation.

“We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible—no matter their title—must be held accountable,” Curtis’ post said. “Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission.”

Protests today come after thousands attended anti-ICE protests over the weekend in Salt Lake City and Park City amid the Sundance Film Festival.

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While actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, he also made a quick stop at the state Capitol to speak in support of an Artificial Intelligence transparency bill.

The actor, known for his roles in “Inception” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” spoke at the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee hearing in support of HB286 on Tuesday. The bill sponsored by Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman, would require AI companies to post child safety plans and publish risk assessments for their AI models.

Gordon-Levitt pointed out that he believes AI is a big deal that will eventually impact everyone’s lives.

“It’s very powerful already, but it’s getting more and more powerful all the time, and look, a lot of that impact is going to be great,” he said, pointing out that it will help boost productivity and advance science and medicine.

He continued: “But like with any powerful technology, it can help and it can harm. It can be both. It’s all about how we use it, right?”

The bill has been drawing national attention. Fiefia said this is because other states have had legislation around AI transparency, but Utah is the first to include child safety.

It is not common for major actors to show up at committee hearings here in Utah. Fiefia has been working with a number of national groups in the development of HB286, and it was these groups that got him connected to Gordon-Levitt.

What Joseph Gordon-Levitt said about the need for AI regulations

Gordon-Levitt spoke for about four minutes before leaving the hearing. As he made his way out of the building, multiple state lawmakers introduced themselves to him and some even got pictures with the actor.

He introduced himself as someone who works in TV and film and started a tech startup. He added that he is directing a movie for Netflix about AI. Gordon-Levitt has recently been outspoken about AI issues and attended a number of events in the last year, including Utah’s AI summit in December.

“The question is what are the principles, what are the morals that are guiding the development and the design of this technology,” he said. “And I’ll tell you, from what I’ve learned, to me, there’s only one principle at play right now: making money.”

Gordon-Levitt pointed out that society works best when there is a balance between market incentives and the public good. He said there is no balance in the AI industry right now.

“There is no balance because there are virtually no laws governing it,” he said. “There are more laws in place governing how you make and sell the sandwich than there are governing this incredibly powerful new revolutionary technology that’s going to change all of our lives.”

Gordon-Levitt shared that he has three kids, ages 10, eight and three.

“I’m worried about them growing up in a future that’s dominated by these amoral AI businesses that have proven time and time again that they are incapable of prioritizing the well-being of kids,” he said.

What does Utah’s AI bill do?

Utah has been working to lead the way in AI development and regulation. In 2023, state lawmakers created a first-of-its-kind AI policy lab that guides innovation and helps craft consumer protection reforms.

“Some AI systems today are extremely powerful. When they fail or are misused, the damage doesn’t stay small. It can spread fast and affect a lot of people at once,” Fiefia said.

Fiefia used to work for Google and has crafted this bill to help protect children who he said are the ones most harmed by the failures of AI.

The sponsor said that if passed, the bill would do four “simple things”:

1. Require companies to post public safety and child protection plans on their websites.

2. Require companies to be honest about the risks of their AI models.

3. Require companies to report incidents when they happen.

4. Protect whistleblowers so that engineers and other employees can speak openly about safety problems without fear of retaliation.

Under this bill there would be a civil penalty of $1 million for the first violation and subsequent violations would incur a penalty of $3 million.

On Tuesday, Fiefia introduced a substitute bill that would send money from these penalties into a fund that would allow the bill to pay for itself.

Critics of the bill say it could stifle the progress of AI development in Utah and go against the Trump administration’s goals with AI.

Fiefia denied these claims, saying there are “no content mandates, no government preapproval, no micromanaging algorithms. It doesn’t touch development, which means it doesn’t stifle innovation.”

He is working on a second bill that would address how minors use AI chatbots. That one has not yet been made public.

“Both bills really come from the same place, which is AI is already shaping kids’ lives and the rules just haven’t caught up,” Fiefia told the Deseret News.

During the hearing, May Kennedy, chief of staff of the Abundance Institute, spoke against the bill. She said that her organization supports transparency and protecting children but said the bill lacks important details.

“There’s several pieces of the bill that lack specificity, specifically in the definition area which will not help create the desired effect that we’re looking for,” Kennedy said. “If we’re here to try and regulate AI, a new technology like this deserves to have some specificity and clarity.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s AI advocacy

In December, Gordon-Levitt joined Utah Gov. Spencer Cox at Utah’s AI summit. He spoke at the event about how society should prevent artificial intelligence companions from replacing real human relationships.

“The bedrock of any civilization is human relationships,” Gordon-Levitt said, as previously reported by the Deseret News. “There’s more to a human relationship than what any chatbot can do.”

In September, Gordon-Levitt made a video with The New York Times where he said “Meta’s AI chatbot is dangerous for kids.”

In 2025 he gave multiple other speeches about AI, mainly focusing on the need for AI regulations and how generative AI models are using the creations of many artists, as previously reported by the Deseret News.

In June, when he addressed the United Nations’ internet Governance Forum, his short speech focused on AI regulations and ended with a simple principle.

“Your digital self should belong to you. That the data that humans produce — our writings and our voices and our connections, our experiences, our ideas — should belong to us. And that any economic value that’s generated from this data should be shared with the humans that produce it,” he said.

Tonight’s Coast 2 Coast Tuesday NBA excitement begins at 8:00 PM ET when the Milwaukee Bucks head to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers. Then, at 10 PM ET, it’s the LA Clippers vs Utah Jazz in a West Coast showdown. Live coverage of tonight’s doubleheader begins at 7:00 PM ET on NBC and Peacock. See below for additional information on how to watch each game and follow all of the NBA action on NBCSN and Peacock. Peacock will feature 100 regular-season games throughout the course of the 2025-2026 season.

Click here to sign up for Peacock!

LA Clippers vs Utah Jazz Preview:

Tonight’s game marks the third and final meeting of the season between the Clippers and Jazz. Utah won the first matchup 129-108 at home on October 22, before Los Angeles answered back with a 118-101 victory on January 1 to even the series.

The Clippers enter tonight’s game on a hot streak, going 15-3 over their last 18 games, including wins in eight of their last nine games. Meanwhile, the Jazz are still searching for consistency, having lost six of their last seven and 12 of their last 15 overall.

The dog days of the season in January is when we see some odd results.

How to watch LA Clippers vs Utah Jazz:

• When: Tonight, Tuesday, January 27
• Where: Delta Center, Salt Lake City, UT
• Time: 10:00 PM ET
• TV Channel: NBC
• Live Stream: Peacock

What other NBA games are on Peacock tonight?

• Milwaukee Bucks vs Philadelphia 76ers – 8 PM ET on NBC and Peacock

How to watch the NBA on NBC and Peacock:

Peacock NBA Monday will stream up to three Monday night games each week throughout the regular season. Coast 2 Coast Tuesday presents doubleheaders on Tuesday nights throughout the regular season on NBC and Peacock. On most Tuesdays, an 8 p.m. ET game will be on NBC stations in the Eastern and Central time zones, and an 8 p.m. PT game on NBC stations in the Pacific and often Mountain time zones.

Check local listings each week. Both games will stream live nationwide on Peacock. NBC Sports will launch Sunday Night Basketball across NBC and Peacock on Feb. 1, 2026. For a full schedule of the NBA on NBC and Peacock, click here.

How to sign up for Peacock:

Sign up here to watch all of our LIVE sports, sports shows, documentaries, classic matches, and more. You’ll also get tons of hit movies and TV shows, Originals, news, 24/7 channels, and current NBC & Bravo hits—Peacock is here for whatever you’re in the mood for.

NBA on NBC 2025-26 Schedule:

Click here to see the full list of NBA games that will air on NBC and Peacock this season.

What devices does Peacock support?

You can enjoy Peacock on a variety of devices. View the full list of supported devices here.

Nina Dobrev‘s bathrobe photo has fans checking in from Park City, Utah, during Sundance weekend. She posted it 18 hours ago, tagged Park City, and wrote, “Final Sundance in Park City, Utah? bittersweet doesn’t begin to describe it…” Nina’s carousel from the Sundance Film Festival reads like downtime between screenings. The post shows about 480.8K likes and 888 comments.

Nina Dobrev shares a bathrobe photo from Utah during Sundance Film Festival

Have a look at Nina Dobrev in a bathrobe:

The “Vampire Diaries” alum wears a plush white hotel robe, loosely cinched at the waist. It falls open at the neckline. Her hair looks half-done, pinned up at the crown, with loose lengths down.

The warm bathroom lighting highlights marble counters and polished wood doors. The photos also landed after she discussed recovering from a dirt bike injury. Fans replied fast, with one writing, “Such a cutie,” another said, “Gorgeous,” and a third added, “THE DIVA”.

The post Nina Dobrev Poses in a Bathrobe in Utah for Sundance Film Festival appeared first on Reality Tea.

A year and a half ago, University of Utah head softball coach Amy Hogue was driving when she received a phone call that would change the trajectory of her sport in Utah.

“I had to pull my car over. I was sure I was going to crash with that news,” she said Monday.

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The Athletes Unlimited Softball League wanted to survey Utah’s Dumke Family Softball Stadium and Salt Lake City as a potential home for one of its professional softball teams.

Though Hogue knew Salt Lake City “would sell itself,” it felt like recruiting weekend when AUSL showed up, she said.

During the visit, Hogue was stopped mid-sentence and was told that AUSL “already knew that we had pretty much everything they were looking for. They just wanted to check all the boxes.”

Hogue’s belief in Salt Lake City’s potential as an AUSL market proved true. On Jan. 13, Athletes Unlimited Softball League announced Salt Lake City would be one of the new home markets for its six teams.

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And on Monday, Hogue stood center stage at The Depot in Salt Lake City at the media launch event of the AUSL’s Utah Talons, where she helped usher in a new chapter in professional softball.

A homecoming for a role model

The addition of the Utah Talons will bring a host of elite athletes to the state, including former Utah Ute great Hannah Flippen.

ESPN’s Holly Rowe, who was Monday’s emcee, described Flippen as “the best second baseman that ever played at the University of Utah.”

As a Ute, Flippen was a three-time All American, two-time Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year and the 2017 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

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On Monday, AUSL commissioner Kim Ng called Flippen “one of the best clutch players in the league.”

“Thanks, coach, for making Hannah the player she is today, and we’re happy to take any more Utes you’ve got,” Ng said.

But Flippen’s softball legacy in Utah started long before she began her college career.

It began in Logan, Utah, where Flippen’s mother, Mary Lou Ramm Flippen, led Utah State to back-to-back national championships.

Ramm Flippen, the first woman to have her jersey retired at the university, set school records in ERA and shutouts.

“She lives vicariously now through this journey, and so she is over the moon about the selection of Salt Lake City being a home city,” Flippen said. “She loves this place as much as I do. She calls this her second home as much as I do. Don’t tell the people up at Utah State that she says that anymore.”

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Her mom has already bought tickets and booked her flights for each of the Talons’ 12 home games, according to Flippen.

“She is thrilled at the growth of our sport as well because she didn’t have the best opportunity. She was playing in women’s leagues and just like random pickup games, and so, to see an established organization pushing this forward has been awesome,” Flippen said.

Professional softball role models were hard for Flippen to find growing up, so she looked up to baseball players in addition to her mom.

“I wanted to be an MLB player, and now, people can say, I want to be an AUSL player and that is so cool,” Flippen said. “To think that somebody’s like, ‘I want to play shortstop like Hannah does’ is such a cool moment, and I’m so lucky to be in this position.”

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Elite athletes as local role models

The AUSL is the professional home of a majority of the best players in the country with 93% of the U.S. national softball team playing in the league, according to Rowe.

In addition to Flippen, last year’s AUSL Defensive Player of the Year honoree, the Talons’ roster also features Megan Faraimo, one of four UCLA Bruins pitchers to win at least 100 games.

“She wins everywhere she goes,” Rowe said Monday.

Faraimo said she’s looking forward to integrating herself into the Salt Lake community.

“I’m looking forward to just really being a part of a new community and being able to go back home to San Diego and be like, ‘Oh, everyone has to go check out Salt Lake City now,’” she said.

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Faraimo, whose grandparents immigrated from American Samoa, is also excited to be a part of — and be a role model — for Utah’s Polynesian community.

“Being able to represent on a stage like this, and then after the game to see all the young Polynesians who come up and they have a role model, is such a cool moment,” she said.

When general manager Lisa Fernandez was a star at UCLA, most players had to retire after college, she said.

“There were very few that were able to continue to play this game.”

Fernandez said the team embraces the opportunity to provide visible role models for young players.

“When you can see that someone else can do it, why not you?” she said. “And I think that’s the message we want to be able to provide to all those little girls.”

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Checking the final box

When Hogue showed off Salt Lake City to AUSL, she was told there was just one final box to check: does Salt Lake City show out?

The answer was yes.

Last summer, AUSL stopped in Salt Lake City as one of its 10 stops for the season. It marked the league’s 15th sellout of the season, according to KUTV.

“When Hannah came with her team and played in Salt Lake City, I was praying that we’d show up because that was the last box that we needed to check and we did,” Hogue said.

The Utah head coach has already purchased her season tickets for her and her family.

Utah Talons season tickets are available on the team’s website and start at roughly $200, equaling about $16 per game. Group tickets are also available, and single game tickets will be made available in the future.

A building that houses the Salt Lake City Immigration Court and the Immigrations and Custom Enforcement field office in Salt Lake City is pictured on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

After years of waiting, several immigrants in Utah were just days or moments away from making their case for asylum in the United States. 

But before judges considered their arguments earlier this month, their cases were dealt a major blow, their attorneys said.  

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security filed motions to “pretermit” their cases, or dismiss them before the long-anticipated hearing and deport them to a “safe third country” where they don’t have ties to seek asylum there instead. 

“It’s a complete nightmare,” said South Jordan immigration attorney Carlos Trujillo. 

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Trujillo noted that in October, an immigration appeals board effectively ruled the burden is on immigrants to prove they are likely to be persecuted or tortured in the third country and therefore should be allowed to stay in the U.S. 

“There is no way to save the case, because there is no way to demonstrate that you will be persecuted in a country that you have never been in,” Trujillo said. 

But he will try anyway at upcoming hearings where he said he will have 15 minutes to make such a case on behalf of clients originally from Venezuela. 

It comes as the Trump administration carries out mass deportations and seeks to clear a backlog of asylum cases. More than 2 million immigrants are awaiting asylum hearings, according to Syracuse University’s TRAC database. 

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to email requests for comment from Utah News Dispatch. It has previously said it is “using every lawful tool available to address the backlog and abuse of the asylum system.” It has also referred to “lawful bilateral arrangements” allowing unauthorized immigrants to seek legal protection in other nations that have agreed to adjudicate their claims.

The United States has a longstanding third-country agreement with Canada but signed more recent agreements with countries including Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras.  

“They’re saying, ‘Hey, because we have the agreements with these countries, they’re not even eligible to apply for asylum here. Let’s ship them to Honduras or Ecuador and see if they’ll grant them asylum instead,’” said Utah immigration attorney Nicholle Pitt White.  

The government’s practice of filing “pretermission motions” intensified nationally in November after the appeals decision, with thousands filed. Use of the legal strategy seems to have started growing in Utah in recent weeks, according to Trujillo and Pitt White. 

The attorneys can count the number of cases in their offices on one or two hands, but suspect more are being filed. 

“It’s very possible they’ve done it in other cases where people don’t have attorneys, and we just wouldn’t hear those stories,” Pitt White said. 

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In and outside of Utah, lawyers are trying to get creative in how they fight against the maneuver. One argument, Pitt White said: The United States’ third-country agreement with Ecuador isn’t in full force because specific criteria for who will and will not be accepted under the accord hasn’t been set.  

Pitt White noted Ecuador has one of the highest homicide rates in South America and Honduras has in recent years had the highest rate of people fleeing and seeking asylum in the U.S. 

She believes one of her clients who’s currently being held in a detention center had a strong case before the change in the government’s strategy. 

“But because of the timing when this policy came out, the motion being filed, we got stuck in a bad spot for our client,” Pitt White said. “It feels kind of hopeless.”

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University of Utah freshman Landon Jakob just wanted to avoid sitting on a stationary bike all winter to stay in shape for his high school mountain bike racing team, when he first tried the newest Olympic sport, ski mountaineering, known as skimo to its fans.

“It was an easy ski with the team up by Guardsman Pass. I had stomach cramps the whole time. It was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done. I kind of wondered how I was going to be able to do it,” recalled Jakob, 18, a USA Skimo national team member.

What got him hooked on the historically European sport that’s set to debut next month at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, was the skimo community that’s developed in Utah. Mostly in their teens, they train hard but also have a lot of fun, Jakob said.

“We’re serious at times, for sure. But then we’ll also have practices that are like parties and we’ll wear costumes sometimes. It’s stuff like that, I think, that got me into it,” he said, describing competing in a winter solstice sprint race with disco balls and music while dressed as an elf.

Utah is already “the skimo capital of the U.S.”

—  Team USA skimo athlete Landon Jakob

Spending time in the backcountry has also become a big draw for Jakob. Skimo, which requires skiers to climb uphill with and without special skis before racing downhill, is based on military training for patrols in the Alps of Italy, Switzerland and France.

“There’s something about being about to choose your line up a mountain without any trails and just go ski where you want,” he said. “I got into it that year and I raced my first youth world cup right away at the end of that season and got on the national team.”

He and another national team member from the same Silverfork Skimo team in Salt Lake City, McCall Birkinshaw, also 18, see themselves as potential Team USA members when Utah hosts the 2034 Winter Games.

Both are counting on the coverage of skimo in Italy to raise awareness of their sport.

Skimo is all about “endurance, and downhill skills, and strategy and even skimo-specific transition skills. It’s all those elements that make it such a fun spectator sport. I think it’s a perfect fit.”

—  Team USA skimo athlete McCall Birkinshaw on the future of the sport

“We need more publicity in this sport, for sure,” said Birkinshaw, who graduated early from Skyline High School and plans to study medicine at the University of Utah. “It’s exciting. It feels like it’s about time, you know? This sport has been so small in the U.S. But it’s really had a breakthrough.”

That came at Solitude Mountain Resort, the site of December’s Salt Lake City Skimo World Cup. There, two Americans, newcomer Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith, unexpectedly won the season’s final mixed relay qualification event and are headed to Italy.

Birkinshaw describes skimo as the ideal Olympic sport, all about “endurance, and downhill skills, and strategy and even skimo-specific transition skills. It’s all those elements that make it such a fun spectator sport. I think it’s a perfect fit.”

Jakob said the opportunity for skimo at this year’s Olympics “will be huge.”

Utah is already “the skimo capital of the U.S.,” he said, as home to the national governing body for the sport, the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Association, also called USA Skimo, as well as the country’s biggest youth teams and about half the national team.

“I know a lot of people came up to that Solitude World Cup who had never heard of skimo and they watched it and thought it was the coolest, and the hardest, sport they had ever seen,” Jakob said. “I definitely think it deserves to stay in the Olympics.”

What new sports are coming to future Olympics?

But there’s no guarantee that skimo will be part of any future Winter Games beyond 2026.

That’s because skimo is among the sports added by the International Olympic Committee only for a specific Games. Part of a more flexible process for hosts, the intent of such additions is to showcase a host’s expertise as well as attract youth.

It’s up to Games organizers to propose new sports. The 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, introduced skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing and karate.

All but karate returned to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris and are on the program for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Paris also saw breaking for the first time, but the hip-hop dance moves aren’t coming back for Los Angeles.

However, the California Games will feature several sports additions, including a pair of new Olympic sports, flag football and squash. Baseball, softball, lacrosse and cricket are all returning to the Olympics in 2028, in some cases after long absences.

Organizers of Utah’s 2034 Winter Games are years away from any decisions about adding new sports, but that hasn’t stopped enthusiasts from coming forward with suggestions about what they want to see.

Besides skimo, the growing list includes skijoring, a mashup of skiing and rodeo that originated in the West where a rider on horseback pulls a skier, and synchronized skating, which features teams of up to 20 ice skaters performing in unison.

Among the other contenders are a pair of sports that have nothing to do with the snow or ice typically associated with the Winter Games, cross-country running and cyclocross, a mix of road cycling, mountain biking and steeplechase.

How will Utah 2034 organizers pick new Winter Games sports?

“We’re popular, and we’ll be that way until we finalize this list. But that’s part of the process. Part of what’s great about the Olympics is it’s an evolving landscape,” said Brad Wilson, CEO of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

“The organizing committee will actually go through a process starting probably in late 2027 or ‘28, where we will start to evaluate all our sport disciplines, in particular adding anything that’s new,” he said.

Just how they’ll be evaluated has yet to be determined, but Wilson said he can promise now that “fan engagement will be part of it, whether or not it fits into our existing venues and maximizes their efficiency will be part of it.”

Other criteria expected to be considered is whether the proposed addition is “an emerging sport that people use, is it balancing men’s and women’s sports,” he said. “Ask me in about 2½ years what that criteria looks like.”

There may be sports now “on the radar screen to at least evaluate. But we are way, way, long before we start doing it,” Wilson said. “We will finalize that probably around 2030, 2031, of what our sports disciplines will be for our Games. So a long time before we get there.”

It remains to be seen what the IOC’s process for adding sports will be for the 2034 Games. Under new IOC President Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, a working group is reviewing all of the Olympic program.

“Nothing’s off the table. They have a pretty big scope,” Coventry, the IOC president, told reporters recently about the Olympic program working group when asked if rotating Games sites was on the agenda.

“I’ve asked them to look at everything,” Coventry told reporters after taking office in mid-2025. That includes “the complexity of the Games; sport, but also the disciplines in each sport; look at the potential rotation between summer and winter.”

A member of that working group, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, has made no secret of his interest in seeing cross-country running added to the Winter Games as soon as the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps.

Coe, an IOC member from Britain, has said the track and field event would be “a good opportunity” for athletes from Africa at the Winter Games. “Winter Games aren’t African. It doesn’t scream African,” he told The Associated Press at last year’s New York City Marathon.

Also a possibility according to Coe? Moving some indoor sports, like judo, from the Summer to the Winter Games, he told the Guardian, saying Coventry is willing “to think differently about the program, and what could go out of the stadium, and that mix between winter and summer.”

U.S. skimo on the ‘Olympic map now’

Not everyone in the sports world is ready to see such sweeping changes.

In November, the Winter Olympic Federations that represent the traditional Olympic winter sports — biathlon, bobsled and skeleton, hockey, luge, skating, ski and snowboard, and curling — issued a statement opposing summer sports at the Winter Games.

“The Winter Olympic Federations are firm in our belief that such an approach would dilute the brand, heritage, and identity that make the Olympic Winter Games unique — a celebration of sports practiced on snow and ice, with distinct culture, athletes, and fields of play,” they said.

Winter Olympic Federations President Ivo Ferriani said skimo’s inclusion in this year’s Winter Games is “a successful example” of focusing on “evolving existing winter sports to attract broader participation and audiences.”

Skimo will be new to many Olympic viewers, especially in the United States, Utah’s Birkinshaw said, calling it “just so empowering” that their first exposure to the sport will be at a Winter Games where Team USA has a shot at medaling.

“Ski mountaineering has been a European-dominated sport for decades. It is so special, and honestly emotional, that the U.S. has built a name for ourselves in this sport,” she said. “We have shown the rest of the world we’re on this Olympic map now.”