New NHL team, football firings and Olympic fever marked 2024 in Utah sports

• State and city officials approved a sales tax worth up to $900 million for a new downtown sports district for the new Utah Hockey Club — even though sports venues are often costly public investments.

The Winter Olympics will return to Utah in 2034 after the International Olympic Committee formally approved SLC as host in July.

A Salt Lake high school basketball player was placed under police protection in February after arch-conservative state school board member Natalie Cline posted photos of the girl online, questioning her gender and prompting threats.

USU fired head football coach Blake Anderson and other athletic department staff in July after investigating alleged Title IX violations.

• Federal agents deemed USU "noncompliant" with reforms university administrators promised after an earlier investigation found the school had repeatedly mishandled sexual assault reports.
• USU updated staff training materials and says it will improve messaging to players. It also promised to hire "outside counsel" to address the football team's culture.

A feud broke out online this summer between the 2024 USA gymnastics team and former Utah gymnastics star and Olympian MyKayla Skinner after Skinner said the team lacked "depth," "talent" and "work ethic."

The University of Utah women's basketball team was targeted with what their coach described as "racial hate crimes" in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March ahead of their NCAA tournament game at Gonzaga.

• The team switched motels to escape the town. Then a far-right political operative shut down a news conference where local officials tried to apologize to the team.