It’s one thing to tell everyone you have the Greatest Snow on Earth, it’s another to let the world’s greatest athletes prove it.

That’s exactly what happened a decade ago when Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. That’s when Utah went from a self-proclaimed great place for skiing and officially became the world’s winter sports capital.

“Abosolutely,” said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, who served as chief Olympic officer during the Games. “We not only solidified our reputation for great skiing, we showed we are the premiere training location for all winter sports.”

Utah has hosted seven World Cups or U.S. Championships since the Games. Utah hosts a number of world-class competitions each season including World Cup aerial and freestyle skiing, the Dew Tour, Grand Prix Snowboarding, the World Freeskiing Tour and more Utah is the only place to host all three International Olympic Committee-sanctioned events (Olympics, Paralympics and Deaflympics).

Athletes are drawn to Utah to train. A total of 38 USA Olympic Team members are training in Utah, including 13 who are now Utah residents. Park City based U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association continues to train Olympic hopefuls at the state-of-the-art Center of Excellence facility, which opened in 2009.

During 2006 the Utah Olympic Oval serviced 20,000 public skating admissions, 622 hours of hockey and 307 hours of figure skating. The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation has invested over $120 million in sport programs and the operation of two official U.S. Olympic Training Sites.

Attracting the world’s best and aspiring Olympians also attracts vacationers who want to ski and play where the Olympians train.

“Non-Olympic athletes want to come here to ski where the best of the best have skied,” said Beattie. “We have truly become the world’s winter sports capital.”