Winter Olympians will compete at these 13 venues when the Games return to Salt Lake City in 2034
SALT LAKE CITY — The Winter Olympics will return to Salt Lake City in 2034, the International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday, marking the success of Utah’s decades-long effort to Preserving Olympic venues and maintaining public enthusiasm.
Local leaders had their sights set on hosting the Games again — and becoming part of a possible future rotation of winter host cities — even before Salt Lake City hosted its first Games in 2002. In the years since, the continued use and maintenance of the Olympic facilities has not only enhanced Salt Lake City’s reputation as a winter sports destination, it has also become a key selling point in its case for bringing the Games back.
“We always thought about the Games happening again,” said Tom Kelly, spokesman for the Salt Lake City bid committee.
Utah’s capital was the only contender the International Olympic Committee considered to host in 2034. In the decades since Salt Lake City first opened its nearby slopes to the world’s best winter athletes, the pool of potential hosts has shrunk dramatically. The sporting event is a notorious money pit and climate change has limited the number of sites it can host. Although Salt Lake City was embroiled in a bribery scandal that nearly ruined the 2002 Winter Olympics, it managed to win back favor with an Olympic committee increasingly dependent on passionate communities with existing infrastructure as options dwindled.
Salt Lake City’s bidding leaders boast they’ve created one of the most compact layouts in Olympic history, with all the venues within an hour’s drive of the athlete village on the University of Utah campus. The plan they presented to the Olympic Committee in Paris on Wednesday doesn’t require any new permanent construction, since all 13 venues are already in place and each played a role when the city first hosted.
These are the planned 2034 locations:
For the first time, Olympic officials are bringing Big Air to the heart of Salt Lake City. Organizers plan to erect a massive ski and snowboard slope in a downtown parking lot two blocks from Temple Square, a center of history and worship for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The city block will also serve as a concert venue and medal plaza for winning athletes, as it did in 2002. While Park Place is a returning venue, the ramp is a new addition. Big Air snowboarding and skiing only became Olympic events in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
Deer Valley Alpine Ski Resort in Park City hosted the freestyle moguls, aerials and alpine slalom competitions in 2002. It plans to host freestyle moguls and aerials again. The luxury resort in the Wasatch Mountains, 36 miles (58 kilometers) east of Salt Lake City, is consistently ranked among the best ski resorts in North America. It regularly hosts competitions for the International Ski and Snowboard Federation and is packed with tourists in the winter.
Home to the NBA’s Utah Jazz and a new NHL expansion team, the Delta Center is a year-round sports venue in downtown Salt Lake City. It hosted the 2002 Olympic figure skating and short track speed skating competitions and will host the same events in 2034.
Billionaire Ryan Smith purchased the arena in 2020 and has announced a years-long plan to renovate the facility to better accommodate the hockey franchise. By the time the Olympics return to town, the Delta Center will likely feature a new ice surface, expanded retractable seating, more nearby parking and a new center-mounted video board. Smith also has ambitious plans to transform the surrounding area into a vibrant sports and entertainment district by 2034.
Park City Mountain will once again host halfpipe competitions after the resort made Olympic history in 2002 by building the first 22-foot (6.7-meter) halfpipe to be used in the Winter Games. Halfpipe snowboarding for men and women made its Olympic debut four years earlier on a smaller halfpipe, but the Park City facility later established the height standard that is still used in competitions.
The ski and snowboard resort 31 miles (50 kilometers) east of Salt Lake City will host slopestyle skiing and snowboarding, freestyle skiing and halfpipe skiing and snowboarding. In 2002, Park City Mountain also hosted the men’s giant slalom and the men’s and women’s parallel giant slalom.
At the foot of the slopes lies Park City’s beloved Main Street, a shopping and dining destination that transforms into the home of the Sundance Film Festival each January.
Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City, will host the alpine ski competitions. The all-season recreation facility behind Mount Ogden is home to legendary courses from the 2002 Winter Games that still stand today. It hosted the downhill ski competitions, the super giant slalom, or super-G, and the combined event consisting of one downhill and two slalom runs.
Snowbasin has invested in improving its facilities since the last Games, adding snowmaking equipment, upgrading chairlifts and building multiple restaurants, parking lots and locker rooms. The resort said it has protected the former site of its 25,000-seat stadium and can once again accommodate that many spectators or more.
The Maverik Center in West Valley City, 10 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, was the premier venue for ice hockey in 2002 and will host the sport again in 2034. The 12,600-seat indoor arena is home to minor league hockey and basketball teams.
Peaks Ice Arena will host ice hockey during the 2034 Games, next to the Maverik Center. The indoor arena in Provo is located 43 miles (69 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. It was built as a practice facility for ice hockey and figure skating for the 2002 Winter Olympics and is now home to Utah Valley University’s men’s ice hockey team.
Rice-Eccles Stadium on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City will host the opening and closing ceremonies, as it did in 2002. The open-air football stadium is home to the Utah Utes of the Pac-12 Conference. University donors have poured millions into renovating the stadium and expanding its capacity since the city last hosted the Olympics.
In the scenic mountain town of Midway, 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Salt Lake City, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center will host the biathlon, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined events it hosted in 2002. The venue was built in Wasatch Mountain State Park for the 2002 Games. Since then, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation has developed it into a venue for cross-country skiing, tubing and snowshoeing in the winter, and a venue for mountain biking and golf in the summer. It regularly hosts the U.S. Cross Country Skiing Championships and is a popular training ground for elite athletes.
The 2002 Olympic Village was located just over the hill from downtown Salt Lake City in historic Fort Douglas on the campus of the University of Utah. The university will once again host the athlete village and will also provide housing for athletes’ families — an Olympic first.
The Utah Olympic Oval, a 5-acre (2-hectare) venue that features the state’s only 400-meter (1,312-foot) speed skating rink and two ice rinks, will once again host long track speed skating events. The facility, located 16 miles (26 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City in Kearns, was built in 2001. Nine world records were set at the Oval during the 2002 Games — the most world records set in a single Olympic event. To keep the venue operational, local leaders have converted it into a multi-purpose facility focused on developing youth and young adult participation in ice sports.
Utah Olympic Park is a world-class winter sports center where athletes from around the world train year-round. The facility in Summit County, 28 miles (45 kilometers) east of Salt Lake City, was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics. It will host bobsledding, freestyle ski cross, luge, Nordic combined skiing, skeleton, ski jumping, parallel snowboarding and snowboard cross in 2034. Even in the summer, you can spot ski jumpers jumping into pools and hurtling down the bobsled run.