SALT LAKE CITY — In the windowless room of the Edison House in downtown Salt Lake City, the international Olympic delegation gathered for a final news conference to end their four-day visit to Utah. The velvet-lined room glowed with uncovered incandescent bulbs and a kind of hope, a palpable optimism about the possibilities that the 2034 Winter Olympics would once again bring to Utah.
“This has been one of the best weeks of my life,” said Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. “It was so fantastic and vulnerable. Feeling the power of the movement, we’re just so happy to be a part of it.”
Christophe Duby, the executive director of the Olympic Games, called Utah a “hidden gem.”
“We knew coming in that we were going to see great venues and a fantastic programme, but this desire to step it up, to be ambitious, was something else,” he said.
The chairman of the committee for future hosts, Carl Stoss, praised the Utah venues as “shining examples of the legacy of Salt Lake City 2002”, impressed that they were maintained to a “very, very high standard”, with continued demand demonstrated.
Initially, the panel talked about the logistics of the future games and how it fits into the development of a rapidly developing country. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said the Games are “perfectly aligned” with Salt Lake City’s future vision and the region will invest in infrastructure regardless of the Games decision.
In a decade, Mendenhall wants to see a Main Street pedestrian walkway, more green space and capacity for family housing in the downtown core.
“We are excited about the transformation we will embrace as we learn how we can do better for 2034,” Mendenhall said, speaking of the changes that have occurred since the city first hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. “These games will be different, they have to be different, we are different.”
The IOC delegation — friendly, open, endlessly positive — embodied what only global sports like the Olympics or the World Cup are capable of representing. They framed the competition itself, which lasts about three weeks, as a kind of sideshow to the real impacts the Games can have on the community in the long term.
Duby said the Olympics matter because they teach that “sport is based on values. Those values are incredibly simple. It’s following the rules, it’s respecting your opponent. It’s respecting everyone everywhere.”
“Sports are the bridge to a peaceful life together,” Stoss said.
The impact of sports on youth was perhaps the biggest topic of discussion on Saturday. “So many opportunities come through sports,” Bollock said. “It’s an alternative to using devices, and an alternative that teaches profound lessons that will benefit them tremendously throughout their lives.”
Four-time Olympic speed skater Kathryn Rainey Norman, chair of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, has outlined a movement to engage more young people in preparation for the Games by exposing them to different sports, communities and mentoring opportunities.
“It’s not just sport in the games, win and lose, right? We create people and build character,” she said.
“These lofty values, these universal values, are extremely important to all of us,” said Gene Sykes, president of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “And that’s why so many of us volunteer our time and put so much effort behind it. It’s important to the world and it’s more than a sport. That’s what sport does for people.”
“We’re very determined to use this long run as a way to engage as broad a group of Americans as possible,” Sykes said.
Saturday’s press conference concluded the delegation’s four-day visit. The group started at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Wednesday before taking the TRAX streetcar train from Fort Douglas to the Delta Center.
On Thursday, visitors made back-to-back stops at Park City Olympic Park, Mountain Village, Nordic Center Soldier Hollow above Midway, rode a chairlift at Snowbasin, down to the Olympic Oval in Kearns, where long track skating would be held, before finishing the day on the court in the Utah Jazz’s final home game.
The 124-121 win over the Houston Rockets could be a boon as Utah enters the final leg of a long process to confirm the state as an official host for the 2034 Winter Games. The delegation will now prepare a recommendation to IOC leaders regarding the 2034 Games Mr.
It will be up to the IOC Executive Board whether Salt Lake City – already named the preferred host for 2034 under the reformed selection process, which is being used for the first time – should receive a final vote this summer.
Another seemingly fortuitous sign — the final vote by the full membership is expected on July 24, Utah Pioneer Day.
