The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City, putting the capital city and the wider Games region into the starting gate of what will be a course to the opening ceremonies that will help define the next decade of Park City history and influence the trajectory of the community into the middle of the century.
The IOC cast 83 votes for the bid and six against for passage during meetings in Paris on the eve of the opening of the Summer Olympics in the French capital. There were six abstentions. The award of the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City had been widely anticipated for months, but the actual IOC vote was nonetheless a historic moment for the state. Excitement spread through the delegation that traveled from Utah when the award was announced even as it was expected.
“We are ready. Everything is in place,” Fraser Bullock, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, said during the presentation to the IOC.
Bullock outlined the Salt Lake City bid, saying existing venues or temporary ones will be used during the Games and there are plans for an Olympic village. He said each of the competition venues is located within 60 minutes of the village.
The presenters from Utah on Wednesday spoke about the various aspects of the plan for 2034, briefly covering a range of topics. Gov. Spencer Cox told the IOC about what he sees as a resilient economy in Utah and the state’s volunteerism. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said progress can be made in sustainability and noted the high level of support for another Winter Olympics in the state. Champion skier Lindsey Vonn spoke about the desire to ensure athlete families are taken care of during the Games.
“Utah loves the Games and what they mean to the world,” Bullock said.
There was discussion during the meeting about the role of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Gene Sykes, the chair of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, said there is a commitment to fostering the World Anti-Doping Agency authority while Cox said the Winter Olympic effort in the state is committed to addressing the issues.
The Park City area is a key to the plans for the Games, though it went largely unmentioned in the presentations. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park are identified as competition venues. The proposed Park City-area venue map includes:
• Park City Mountain hosting snowboarding halfpipe, snowboarding slopestyle, freestyle skiing halfpipe and freestyle skiing slopestyle.
• Deer Valley hosting freestyle skiing aerials and freestyle skiing moguls.
• The Utah Olympic Park hosting ski jumping, the jumping portion of the Nordic combined, bobsled, luge, skeleton, snowboarding parallel giant slalom, snowboard cross and freestyle skiing ski cross.
Soldier Hollow, in nearby Wasatch County, is slated to host the cross-country skiing portion of the Nordic combined, biathlon and cross-country skiing. Snowbasin is identified as the venue for the ski-racing events in the speed and technical disciplines.
The Games will follow 32 years after the 2002 Winter Olympics, when Park City also had a large role in the event. The earlier Games were credited with playing a role in the expansion of tourism over the past 20-plus years, including in the ski industry that is so important to the Park City economy.
Park City and Summit County are expected to attempt to advance community priorities, such as transportation, as they prepare for the Games. There could eventually be federal funds available to the state linked to the preparations, and leaders see there being a possibility of progress on a concentrated timeline with the Winter Olympics looming.
Talk about a second Games in Utah started shortly after the event in 2002 closed, but momentum seemed to start in earnest at the 10-year anniversary in 2012. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee in late 2018 selected Salt Lake City to bid on a future Winter Olympics. It appeared at the time the Games of 2030 were possible, but it was eventually decided to pursue the 2034 event to guard against an organizing committee in Salt Lake City competing in fundraising with the group putting on the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
