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PARK CITY — For all the million-dollar views in Utah, Park City is right up there with the best of them.
"We are so spoiled here. We take it so for granted that we live and get to play in a tourist destination that's year-round," said Cassie Revelli, who works in Park City.
However, even Revelli knows looking for a hotel in Park City these days might feel like you need a million dollars.
"It definitely gets a little bit tricky," she said.
That's why she is proud to be the manager at the Residences at Utah Olympic Park. It's a building that features hotel-style rooms and apartments at a cheaper cost for athletes training in Park City. That way athletes hoping to become Olympians can focus on training instead of working.
"To be able to maintain focus and (have) some things taken off your plate, that you know we'll be here for you whenever you need to reach out," said Revelli.
Revelli is a former competitive skeleton racer and says having something like this available to her when she was training in Park City would have been a game-changer.
"It would have saved so much time for me commuting from Salt Lake. This would've been amazing," she said.
During the ski season, rooms here cost in the low $100s a night. Revelli says that's still roughly 30% cheaper than the average Park City hotel room during the winter season. Rates are cheaper if you need a few weeks or months to train.
"We have the longer-term apartments," said Revelli. "They can stay as long as they need to. We understand that world of an athlete that you don't live your life either six months or twelves like a traditional lease."
The Residences at Utah Olympic Park are available to international athletes as well. Many train in Park City, as well as U.S. based athletes.
"We want to welcome everyone here," said Revelli.
Being able to stay and train at a more affordable rate allows athletes who don't come from affluent families to carry out their Olympic dreams. Most U.S. athletes who stay at the Residences come from out of state and don't have sponsors to pay their way.
"Yeah, I probably wouldn't be here if I didn't have this option to stay here," said Audrey Higgins-Lopez.
Higgins-Lopez is an alpine skier from New York who is training in Park City to get better and maybe make an Olympic team one day.
"I'm not sure what I would do if I wasn't here," she said.
The Residences opened in 2019 as part of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation's mission to help cultivate champions. It's built next to Utah Olympic Park where athletes train for sports like bobsled, skeleton, skiing, and snowboarding.
"We're close to the venues, so athletes can walk up the hill and they ski back down in the wintertime, which is so fun to see our tracks," said Revelli.
It's even more fun when athletes who stayed here do well in competition.
"We get to have that little extra joy for them in knowing their community here at the Residences at Utah Olympic Park is behind them," said Revelli.
Beijing 2022 will be the first winter Olympics since this facility was built. There's a chance a medal winner in those Games will have stayed here to train to make that dream come true.
