SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City is expected to be formally awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics following a vote on Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee in Pariswhich would give Utah its second Games since hosting them in 2002.
A watch party is planned for 3 a.m. local time — 11 a.m. in Paris — to celebrate the announcement. Large crowds are expected at the event, which coincides with a national holiday marking the date Mormon pioneers discovered the Salt Lake Valley in northern Utah. Olympic enthusiasts had already begun to gather downtown and set up tents before sunset on Tuesday.
Salt Lake City is the only candidate the Olympic Committee is considering for 2034. Climate change and high operating costs have reduced the number of cities willing and able to host the Winter Games. Utah has capitalized elsewhere to low interest, pitching itself to Olympic officials as an enthusiastic repeat host if the committee moves forward with a proposed permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities. Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi has said Salt Lake City would be a good candidate for such a plan.
Local leaders had their sights set on hosting multiple times even before Salt Lake City hosted its first Games, bid team spokesman Tom Kelly said. Remnants of the 2002 Games are scattered throughout the city, keeping the Olympic fever alive for more than two decades. Organizers of the 2034 Games praised that enduring enthusiasm during the selection process and showed visiting Olympic officials how they preserved the 2002 venues.
In its final presentation to the Olympic Committee on Wednesday morning, the bid team is expected to outline its plan for one of the most compact layouts in Olympic history, with all of the venues within an hour’s drive of the athlete village on the University of Utah campus. The plan does not require any new permanent construction, since all 13 venues are already in place and each played a role when the city first hosted the event.
For Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, securing the bid is crucial to his goal of cementing the state as North America’s winter sports capital. He and other local leaders are in Paris for the bid presentation, while many Winter Olympians have stayed in town to train and participate 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 with Olympic aspirations. Salt Lake City has grown tremendously since 2010, when Lillis said his family came to visit, and it has become more expensive. Lillis trains at nearby Utah Olympic Park and said the area’s sports facilities are “top notch.”
Matthew Lindon, who has lived in the Park City, Utah, ski area, which hosts many events, for 45 years, says the town has expanded significantly since he arrived.
“The 2002 Olympics were all about, ‘The world is welcome here.’ And what really happened was we brought Utah to the world and now we’re a world-class ski resort,” he said.