For a “farm girl” from Layton, Jen Day’s life was already pretty busy and exciting even before she ever drew her first paycheck from either Salt Lake Community College or the United States Speedskating team. 

Just 10 years after graduating from Layton High in 2005, Day had already earned a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from Utah State University – and spent a year between those scholastic achievements, as she puts it, “saving endangered turtles in Costa Rica.”

In her next 10 years (and two months, if you’re splitting hairs: up through last February), Day was hired on, and later tenured, as a SLCC professor – and has travelled to China, Norway, Holland and Italy in support of the Olympic dream.

Day worked 12-hour days as the official US Speedskating team’s sports dietician in Beijing in 2022 and again this year in Milan. But technically, those weren’t her first Winter Games – just the first ones she was paid to attend.

“I was in a ninth-grade journalism class during the 2002 Salt Lake Games and our class got to take a field trip up to see the ski jumping event in Park City,” Day said. “It’s funny how this has come full circle for me. Those 2002 Games seemed like such a big thing. Now, attending the Winter Olympics feels normal.”

Day didn’t decide to pursue nutrition as a career until she entered Utah State on a track and field scholarship. But she began learning about food at a much earlier age, thanks to her father and uncle. 

“They grew mostly tomatoes, peppers and beans on 200 acres in West Layton,” Day explained. “I began working with them on the farm at a very young age. I helped transplant young plants into the field. I was very busy working on the farm until about age 16. I stay busy with it a little even now. I take produce to sell at farmers markets in Park City and Salt Lake all through the summer.”

Three years after earning her Nutrition and Food Science Ph.D. at Utah State, Day accepted a job offer with Salt Lake Community College. 

“I had been teaching auditorium-size classes at Utah State and wanted to shift to smaller, more intimate classrooms,” Day explained. “I just responded to a job posting at SLCC in 2018 – didn’t know anyone there at the time. I was lucky enough to get the job; and six years later, in 2024, I earned tenure as an associate professor in Exercise Science. I teach six or seven classes each semester, live on campus and also online.”

It was thanks to taking that job in 2018 that Day got the opportunity to hook up with the US Speedskating team in 2019.

In our January story about the SLCC Beyond the Podium program, we introduced you to the college’s Carrie Needham, who provides Olympic athletes with physiological testing. Athlete heart rates and exertion levels are measured, among other things. Day credits Needham with opening the door to her Winter Games world.

“Carrie had worked for US Speedskating and heard they were trying to fill a dietician position,” Day said. “Thanks to Carrie’s recommendation, it was a pretty easy interview with the team’s high-performance director. They hired me in the spring of 2019 – and less than three years later, I was making my first trip to China for the 2022 Beijing Games.”

You may recall, that was still during the pandemic. Some safety protocols had been lifted by then; but athletes’ family members and friends were still not allowed to attend the games in China.

Day says everyone was still wearing masks on the flight to China, also. That fact prevented her from recognizing undoubtedly the most famous Olympic snowboarder ever – even though she spent hours right next to him on the flight.

“That was my first international trip with the US Speedskating team and I sat right next to (5-time Olympian and 3-time gold medalist halfpipe snowboarder) Shaun White,” Day said. “He even helped me fill out a COVID form. But we both had masks on and I had no idea who he was. I probably would have known him if he still had his long, orange hair. But he was clean cut – and I had no idea I was sitting next to such a famous Olympian.”

Because of all the strict coronavirus protocols, Day wasn’t able to do any sightseeing in China. That experience also made the just-completed games in Milan that much more rewarding.

“The team members like to call me the ‘snack doctor’ because I carry all kinds of snacks in my backpack at the events,” Day said. “I work with both the long track and short track athletes – about 30 of them, men and women, ages 17 to 36. I cooked pancakes for them almost every morning and nearly every day I was picking food up for them at the grocery store. Luckily it was just across the street from the Olympic Village.”

One of Day’s most frequent grocery purchases was steak – for the speedskater who ended up winning more medals than any other United States athlete. Jordan Stolz, of Wisconsin, set two Olympic records and claimed gold in the men’s 1000-meter and 500-meter races, along with a silver in the 1500.

“Jordan liked to eat steak every night, so I bought them; but I left the cooking up to someone else on his support team,” Jen said. “I also made the mistake of buying him some steak knives. The Olympic Village security people were not pleased when I tried to bring those in. But Jordan was great to work with – very down to earth, just like all of our speedskaters. I really love working with them.” 

After being away from Utah nearly an entire month for the Games, Day is now back teaching for SLCC and getting back to “normal.”

“I love working for SLCC; they are all so supportive of letting me work a schedule that allows me to be the US Speedskating team’s sports dietician,” she said. “I hope to continue working for them for many years.”

As for the Winter Olympics, Day also hopes to remain with the speedskaters through the 2030 Games in the French Alps and the 2034 Games, right back here in Utah.

“After working with them for seven years, we’ve become a family,” Jen concluded. “These athletes work so, so hard to achieve their dreams. Watching their events is very emotional. They enjoy the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I’m kind of like the team mom. It comes with joy and heartbreak. This is the most important thing in their lives. I just love being a part of it.”