SALT LAKE CITY — Reminders of the 2002 Winter Olympics can be found in every nook and cranny of Utah’s capital, from a towering Olympic cauldron overlooking the Salt Lake Valley to an Olympic emblem stamped on manhole covers downtown.
As visitors leave the airport, they are greeted with an unmissable Olympic arch amid snow-capped mountains, carrying a message essential to Salt Lake City’s bid to rehost the Games: You are entering an Olympic city.
Unlike so many other former hosts who have decided that bringing back the Games isn’t worth the time, money or hassle, Salt Lake City remains one of the few places where the Olympic fever still burns fiercely.
That continued enthusiasm will be on full display Wednesday when members of the International Olympic Committee travel to Northern Utah for their final site visits ahead of a formal announcement expected in July to name Salt Lake City’s 2034 host.
In the more than two decades since Salt Lake City first opened its nearby slopes to the world’s top winter sports enthusiasts, the pool of potential hosts has shrunk dramatically. The sporting spectacle is a notorious money pit, and climate change has limited the number of venues that can host future winter competitions.
Meanwhile, Utah has spent millions to keep its Olympic facilities from falling into disrepair, while also ensuring residents continue to have vague feelings about the Games themselves.
Although Salt Lake City was mired in a bribery scandal that nearly derailed the 2002 Winter Olympics, the country has clawed its way back into the good graces of an Olympic committee that is increasingly dependent on enthusiastic communities as opportunities dwindle. The city is now a prime candidate if Olympic officials eventually form a permanent rotation of host cities.
The Olympic Committee was left with just two candidate cities for 2022 – Beijing, China and Almaty, Kazakhstan – after financial, political and public concerns caused several European candidates to drop out.
“The International Olympic Committee needs Salt Lake City much more than Salt Lake City needs the International Olympic Committee or the Olympic Games,” said Jules Boykoff, professor of sports and politics at Pacific University.
For Utah Governor Spencer Cox, securing the Olympic bid is critical to his goal of cementing the state as the winter sports capital of North America.
Cox has continued a long-standing push from state leaders to welcome professional sports leagues and international events like last year’s NBA All-Star Game, which could help burnish the country’s image as a sports and tourism mecca, while lingering stigma that Utah harbors is being removed. is a bizarre, hyper-religious place.
More than half of the state’s 3.4 million residents and the majority of state leaders belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church.
Dave Lunt, a historian at Southern Utah University who teaches about the Olympics, said the Games give members of that faith, and other residents, a chance to clear up misconceptions and share their values with the world.
“Latter-day Saints really just want to be liked. No disrespect or anything, that’s my community, but there’s a history of, we want to show that we belong, we’re good Americans,” he said.” We are happy to host the party at our home.
The reputational change brought about by the 2002 Winter Olympics – widely regarded as one of the most successful Games – spurred rapid growth in the region. And through state and federal funds given to the city ahead of the first Olympic Games, Salt Lake City has a light rail system and world-class athletic facilities.
Utah leaders are now one step away from finalizing a bid based on the claim that they can keep costs down by using most of the same sites they have kept operating since 2002.
“I promise you that if every country had the infrastructure we had, they would see it as a smart investment,” Cox said at his March press conference, where he also proclaimed public support for the bid.
Being one of the few cities still willing and able to host the Winter Games gives Salt Lake City the power to dictate terms to the Olympic Committee, Boykoff said, which determines operating funds, deadlines and even which sports will be held. participating in the Games.
And with NBC’s multibillion-dollar broadcast contract with the Olympic Committee set to expire in 2032 — two years before Utah would host — the committee has a vested interest in selecting a U.S. city in a better time zone for live broadcasts to lure NBC and other U.S. broadcasters. established broadcasting giants.
In recent years, the Olympic Committee has begun issuing bids further in advance and vetting potential hosts more carefully to make sure they are prepared, said Olympic historian David Wallechinsky. Public support can make or break a bid, he said.
Unlike many cities that submitted previous bids, Salt Lake City did not hold a formal vote for residents to decide whether they wanted another Games, even though local bid leaders say their statewide polls show more than 80% approval .
Remnants of the 2002 Winter Games remind locals that the Olympics are part of the fabric of their city, and that being a host city is a point of pride. They are part of a long-term strategy that Utah leaders launched in the wake of their first Olympics to maintain local support so they can host again.
But Olympic historians say enthusiasm can distract residents from the potential downsides seen in other host cities, such as gentrification, corruption, rising taxes or empty promises of environmental improvements.
So far, no opposition has formed in Utah.
“If we look at the Olympics as a cultural institution,” Lunt said, “it might be worth paying some money if the people of Utah decide that’s important to us, collectively.”