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SALT LAKE CITY — A group of six Utah teenagers will travel to France on Sunday to participate in a global youth sports festival ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Utah high school athletes will participate in a week of activities with 500 youth from 36 countries. The Utah delegation is one of only five from North America.
The Festival 24 event will be hosted by Sport dans la Ville, a Paris-based youth sports organization, and will feature Olympic sports activities in Lyon, France, and the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Paris on July 26.
Abby Cox to appear at Olympics youth festival
First lady Abby Cox played a key role in selecting the Utah delegation, according to a press release issued by the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. Participants were selected from across the state for demonstrating leadership abilities in sports ranging from basketball to golf to skiing.
"One of the great things about sport is that it brings everyone together, regardless of their background," the first lady said in a Wednesday press release. "Sport can be a catalyst to energize communities and foster positive connections. That's what I see in these young ambassadors from Utah."
Cox will participate in the Festival 24 event on July 25, joining the global youth delegations at the Jardin d'Acclimatation amusement park in Paris for the announcement of a partnership between Sport dans le Ville and the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games to achieve greater youth involvement as Utah prepares to host its own Olympics in 10 years.
Cox will be joined at the Festival 24 announcement by Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn — a Park City resident — and 2002 women's downhill champion Carole Montillet from France.
The first lady's appearance at the event will come one day after the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, including state leaders and Olympians, meets in Paris to make a final pitch on Pioneer Day, July 24, for the 2034 Winter Games. Utah is expected to receive the Games.
These Utah students are going to France
Students from across the state will represent Utah at the Festival 24 event. The participants include:
- Tyson Adamson, a 16-year-old student at Lehi High School, who plays multiple school sports and hopes to play college golf. He can't wait to "meet people from all over the world."
- Harun Ahmed, a 16-year-old student at West High School in Salt Lake City, who has played basketball with the Salt Lake Bandits and aspires to play on a Division 1 college team.
- Ellie Finlinson, a 16-year-old student at North Sanpete High School from Moroni, Sanpete County, who has received awards for her works of journalism and hopes to play college basketball.
- Victoria Rosales, a 16-year-old student at Park City High School, who is the captain of her mountain biking team, a Latinos in Action vice president and a junior ski instructor.
- Jazmin Solis, a 16-year-old student at North Sanpete High School from Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete County, who plays on the school tennis team. She called going to France for the Olympics "a dream."
- Raymond Soto, a 17-year-old student at West High School in Salt Lake City, who plans on becoming a Marine after graduating from college as a JROTC navy member.
Utah's youth delegation will be in France from July 21 to July 28. They were notified of their selection in the first week of June.
