Salt Lake City Celebrates Announcement It Will Host 2034 Winter Olympics
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City has officially been awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics following a vote Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee in Pariswhich gives Utah its second Games after hosting them in 2002.
A watch party was scheduled for 3 a.m. local time (11 a.m. Paris time) to celebrate the announcement. A large crowd was expected at the event, which coincides with a holiday marking the date Mormon pioneers discovered the Salt Lake Valley in northern Utah. Olympic fans were already gathering in town and pitching their tents before sunset Tuesday.
Salt Lake City was the only contender the Olympic committee considered for 2034. Climate change and high operational costs have reduced the number of cities willing and able to host the Winter Games. Utah capitalized With little interest from other cities, Salt Lake City has presented itself to Olympic officials as an eager host city if the committee moves forward with plans to permanently rotate Winter Olympic cities. Olympics executive director Christophe Dubi has said Salt Lake City would be a prime candidate for such a plan.
Local leaders had planned to host the Games several times before Salt Lake City hosted its first Games, said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the bid team. Relics from the 2002 Games are scattered around the city and have kept Olympic fever alive for more than two decades. 2034 Games organizers praised this lasting enthusiasm throughout the selection process and showed visiting Olympic officials how they preserved the venues used in 2002.
In their final presentation to the Olympic committee Wednesday morning, the bidders were asked to present their plans for one of the most compact venues in Olympic history, with all venues located within an hour’s drive of the athletes’ village on the University of Utah campus. The project requires no new permanent construction, with all 13 venues already in place and each having played a role in the city’s first hosting of the Games.
For Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, securing the bid was critical to his goal of cementing the state as the winter sports capital of North America. He and other local leaders were in Paris for the bid presentation, while many Winter Olympic athletes stayed in town to train and take part in the festivities.
American freestyle skier Christopher Lillis, a gold medalist at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, said the 2034 Games would be a dream come true for young people aspiring to the Olympics. Salt Lake City has grown significantly since 2010, when Lillis said his family began visiting, and the city has become more expensive. Lillis trains at nearby Utah Olympic Park and said the area’s sports facilities are “top-notch.”
Matthew Lindon, a 45-year-old resident of the ski resort town of Park City, Utah, where many of the events will take place, said the town has grown considerably since he arrived.
“At the 2002 Olympics, the motto was, ‘The world is welcome here.’ And in fact, we’ve introduced Utah to the world, and today we’re a world-class ski resort,” he said.
