After a long period of anticipation for many Utah residents, the International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that Salt Lake City is the preferred finalist to host the 2034 Winter Olympics.
“We did it! The world is coming back to Utah in 2034,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in a tweet. “So proud of our team and can’t wait to make this the greatest Olympics ever.”
Though the decision isn’t quite official, cities that previously expressed interest including Vancouver, Canada and Sapporo, Japan have dropped out of the race, leaving Salt Lake as the last major contender for the bid. The IOC website clarifies that Salt Lake has been included in a “Targeted Dialogue” in preparations to host the games.
All that is left to finalize the decision is for the many government contracts to be drawn up and for Utah to provide the necessary assurances before it can be approved. If all moves forward smoothly, the members of the IOC will officially take a vote on it next July.
The IOC must consider numerous criteria for a city to be deemed a preferred candidate, and having previously hosted the games in 2002, Salt Lake City is more than prepared. Most, if not all, of the necessary facilities — including hotels, arenas, tracks and other performance spaces — are already present from the previous games, so no significant investment is required to make the games feasible. The 2002 games were also notably one of the few Olympic Games to turn a profit, and all of the leftover money from those events was put toward the upkeep of facilities. This information alone makes Salt Lake an attractive candidate, but there is more to consider.
Salt Lake City allows for a condensed Olympic layout, meaning that all athlete housing and event venues are within an hour of the city. The 2002 Olympic Village, where all the athletes live for the duration of the games, was located in Historic Fort Douglas, right here on the University of Utah campus.
Not to mention that Salt Lake also has plentiful experience in hosting other high-profile winter events, due to their world-class skiing areas in Park City and Deer Valley. Deer Valley, for example, was responsible for aerial, alpine slalom and freestyle mogul events during the 2002 games.
With the Winter Olympics returning to Utah in 2034, the eyes of the world will be drawn back to Salt Lake City to watch one of the most prestigious events on Earth. But if there’s anything we learned from 2002, it’s that Salt Lake City is no stranger to putting on a show to remember.
