On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee voted in Paris to officially award the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City. This would be Utah’s second Winter Olympics, after its 2002 hosting.
At three o’clock in the morning local time (or eleven o’clock in Paris), there would be a viewing party to commemorate the news. Due to the event’s proximity to a state holiday commemorating the day Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in northern Utah, large numbers were anticipated. Before Tuesday’s dusk, Olympic aficionados began to congregate downtown and put up tents.
The Olympic Committee was only thinking of Salt Lake City as a potential host for 2034. Fewer cities are prepared to host the Winter Games due to rising operating expenses and the effects of climate change. By appealing to Olympic authorities as a willing repeat host in the event that the committee goes through with its planned permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities, Utah has taken advantage of other states’ lack of enthusiasm. Christophe Dubi, the executive director of the Olympic Games, has previously said that Salt Lake City would be an ideal location for this kind of proposal.
According to Tom Kelly, a representative from the bid team, local officials had their eyes set on hosting the Games more than once before Salt Lake City hosted its first Games. The city is filled with remnants of the 2002 Games, which have maintained the Olympic spirit for almost twenty years. In a presentation to visiting Olympic authorities, organizers of the 2034 Games highlighted the sites’ preservation efforts and the ongoing excitement that was present throughout the selection process.
On Wednesday morning, the bid team was supposed to give the Olympic committee their final presentation outlining their idea for a very compact Olympic layout. All of the venues would be located within a one-hour drive of the athlete’s village on the University of Utah campus. All thirteen venues are pre-existing and had significant roles during the city’s first hosting, thus there’s no need to build anything new for this design.
In order to achieve his objective of establishing Utah as the winter sports hub of North America, Governor Spencer Cox placed a premium on winning the bid. While many winter Olympians remained in town to prepare and participate in the celebrations, he and other local officials were in Paris for the bid presentation.
According to American freestyle skier Christopher Lillis, the 2034 Winter Olympics would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for young people with Olympic dreams, who won a gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Salt Lake City has seen significant growth and price increases since Lillis said that his family began visiting in 2010. According to Lillis, the sporting facilities in the region are “top-notch.” He has been training at the neighboring Utah Olympic Park.
The city of Park City, Utah, where numerous events would take place, has grown significantly since Matthew Lindon, a 45-year resident, arrived. “‘The world is welcome here.'” They used that slogan during the 2002 Olympics. “What actually happened was that we became a world-class destination skiing resort, and we brought Utah to the world,” he said.
When did Salt Lake City host the Winter Olympics?
The Utah capital, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002 and was the most recent U.S. site, was chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members to host the Games.
Will there be an Olympics in 2034?
The 2034 Winter Olympics, formally known as the XXVII Olympic Winter Games, is an anticipated international multi-sport event that will take place from February 10 to 26, 2034. The host city will be decided during the 142nd IOC Session in Paris on July 24, 2024, two days before the 2024 Summer Olympics.
