KEARNS, Utah — A possible return of the Winter Olympics may be a decade away, but officials in Utah and Salt Lake City have already amped up their excitement about the potential return of the Games to the Beehive State.
Over the weekend, the International Olympic Committee announced plans to announce for hosts for the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics by next summer. As of right now, Salt Lake City is favored to be awarded one of the events.
“We are ready and we’re the closest to hearing those excited cheers of a Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games that we have been since closing ceremony in 2002,” said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
In addition, the IOC announced that climate change is now impacting the places where the games can take place. Studies show that Salt Lake City could be on a track to have enough snow, even in 2034, to be a viable option as host.
Elected officials in the city and state are standing together in the final mile of in trying to bring the Games to Utah.
“We’ve done it before, we understand how to run successful a games, an economically successful games, but also a competitively successful games," said Gov. Spencer Cox. "We also know that we have the infrastructure here to do it. We already have the facilities.”
Several organizations have been working to maintain the venues already in place since 2002 and create an inviting environment.
“These are community assets, its not just for the Games. Games come every once in a while, but these are used by thousands and thousands of kids and adults in our community, and so they are community recreation centers, so that investment in our citizens, we are a secondary beneficiary,” explained Fraser Bullock, President and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games
Leaders emphasize that the Olympics are more than just the actual events, recalling the spirit of the community in 2002, with an eye towards carrying that sentiment forward.
“I will never forget when they brought in that 9/11 flag, the unity we felt, not only as a community but as a nation, and we sense that same unity today. That we have the governor, we have the legislature, we have the mayor, we have the public, we have the team, all working to get this done,” said Senate President Stuart Adams.
Before Olympic athletes can spin on the ice at the Delta Center or experience the Greatest Snow on Earth in the mountains, Utah leaders hope to be invited to targeted dialogues with the IOC in December, with a final host decision to be made in July.
