Difference between revisions of "Peter Vidmar"

Latest revision as of 13:09, 22 July 2024

Peter Glen Vidmar (born June 3, 1961 in Los Angeles) is a Latter-day Saint gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. He was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. In all he won two Olympic golds and one silver medal. Vidmar was a member of the 1984 men’s Olympic team that won the U.S.’s first (and only) team gold at the Los Angeles Games.

He is an alumnus of UCLA (with a degree in economics) and host of the Annual Peter Vidmar Men's Gymanstics Invitational at Brentwood School in Los Angeles. Peter has been a gymnastics anchor for both CBS and ESPN. He has been a motivational speaker for over thirty years (an industry publication named him as one of the ten top motivational speakers in the U.S.[1]) as well as the co-chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee Summer Sports Summit. In 1998 Vidmar was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. He is the highest scoring American gymnast in Olympic history.

Vidmar has worked consistently as a journalist or broadcaster at each summer Olympics. He has served on the President's Council on Physical Fitness & Sports, the Executive Board of the United States Olympic Committee, and the Executive Committee of USA Gymnastics. He was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve as vice chair of the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports for the state of California.

He was named chairman of the U.S. Gymnastics Board of Directors in December 2008. He sits on the Board of Governors for the Cause for Hope Foundation and is vice president of the Orange County Youth Sports Foundation, a program that benefits underprivileged kids.

In May 2011, Vidmar was named chef de mission for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, but he abruptly resigned after negative attention in the media and in the United States Olympic Committee due to his contributions to California’s Proposition 8 ballot initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

My choice to resign was based on my desire to keep our focus and the attention of the media on the athletes and the good things they do. It hurt, because it was a great honor. If athletes are going to be asked questions about something that really had no relevance to their training and preparation for the Olympic Games, then it wasn’t going to be beneficial for me to serve. When I realized it could be a distraction to the athletes, it was a very easy decision just to step down. I wanted the athletes to have every possible advantage they can have.”[2]

He is married to former gymnast Donna Harris. They have five children and live in Heber City, Utah. He presided over the Australia Melbourne Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from July 2016 to July 2019. He has served in the Church as a public affairs specialist, seminary teacher, bishop, and stake presidency counselor. In October 2020, Vidmar began serving as a member of the Young Men general advisory council.

This July, just shy of the July 26, 2024, opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vidmar, participated in a special Olympic devotional with Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé on Sunday, July 21. Joining them were former BYU basketball star and Olympian Jimmer Fredette and Rudi Sordes, a French Latter-day Saint who composed music for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The Latter-day Saint Olympians and Church leaders shared their thoughts on sports and the gospel with youth and young adults.[3][4]