Phelps hosts Utah sports awards, Park City athlete honored statewide

Michael Phelps brought Olympic star power to the Delta Center on Wednesday night, but for Park City the headline was Quinn Dehlinger standing among Utah’s statewide honorees as Olympic Male Athlete of the Year. The Deer Valley aerialist returned from a 2024 knee tear, earned his first Olympic team selection in 2026 and topped it with a World Cup win at Deer Valley.

The 14th annual Governor’s State of Sport Awards, presented by the Utah Sports Commission with Gov. Spencer J. Cox, recognized athletes, coaches, teams, events and sport icons across high school, collegiate, professional and Olympic-Paralympic categories. The commission said the program began in 2012, and this year’s ceremony also served as a welcome-home night for Team Utah athletes who competed at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games.

Cox said Utah is “the State of Sport,” tying the awards to the state’s path toward the 2034 Winter Games. That message mattered in a room where Phelps, who won 28 Olympic medals across four Games, was the special guest and host. It also fit Utah’s broader sports pitch, which now includes new venues, the renamed Utah Mammoth hockey club and a growing winter-sports identity built to last beyond one medal count.

For Park City, Dehlinger’s honor carried a local significance that went beyond a trophy. The city has long sold itself as an Olympic pipeline, from Deer Valley’s alpine legacy to the athletes who train, recover and return there. A statewide award tied to Phelps’ name gives that pipeline a national-style spotlight, the kind that helps Park City stay visible in Utah’s sports economy and in the state’s 2034 branding push.

The ceremony also underscored how much Utah’s sports reach now extends across disciplines. Other 2026 honorees with Utah ties included BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Ilove’a Brittingham, while Utah Olympic team members contributed to a Utah-connected medal haul of 26 medals, including 10 gold, at Milano-Cortina. That backdrop made Dehlinger’s comeback even more notable, especially in a state that increasingly measures itself by both elite results and the venues, teams and events that keep athletes coming back.

For Summit County, Wednesday night was a reminder that the region’s value is not just in producing winners, but in helping define Utah’s winter-sports identity as the state builds toward 2034.