PARIS — After a big sendoff at Salt Lake International Airport Monday afternoon, most of the Utah delegation to the Games arrived in Paris on Tuesday morning facing a cloudy, drizzly French welcome.
For many on the 10-hour overnight flight, the morning was spent dashing to the historic 17th century hotel George Marshall Center at the Hôtel de Talleyrand for a reception hosted by U.S. Ambassador to France Denise Campbell Bauer.
The 100-plus in attendance at the reception included bid committee members, Olympic donors, Olympic athletes, elected officials and family members. The leaders of the delegation, while addressing the gathered Utahns, stressed what a momentous day Wednesday will be, when it is nearly certain that the 2034 Winter Games will be awarded to Salt Lake City-Utah, which will be the fifth time the United States has hosted the Winter Games.
Another common theme in the speeches from Gov. Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and bid committee CEO Fraser Bullock was the extraordinary job they said the Olympic Legacy Foundation has done to preserve the key Olympic venues and provide these facilities as resources to the community for the past 22 years. Cox, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and Utah Speaker of the House Mike Schultz all stressed that these games will not use any taxpayer funds to finance the games.
The International Olympic Committee session gets started right way on Wednesday. The presenters for the Utah Team will be Cox; Mendenhall; Bullock; Dani Aravich, a biathalon paralympian from Salt Lake City; Lindsey Vonn, the Olympic champion skier from Park City; Catherine Raney Norman, the SLC-UT Chair and Olympic speed skater; and Gene Sykes, president of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
