SALT LAKE CITY — The last time Christophe Duby was in Salt Lake City was during the 2002 Winter Olympics, when the then-first host city was making its first foray onto the world stage.
Now the Swiss Olympic executive is back in the Beehive State, along with other International Olympic Committee leaders, after the capital was named the “preferred host” for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and he is impressed with the way along which the city grew.
“When you leave a gap of 20 years … it’s not the same at all,” Dubey said during a panel discussion at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City on Thursday. “I remember coming to Salt Lake some Sundays and one felt quite alone around because of the little denizens there were. . . . It really is night and day.”
And it’s not just the way the physical landscape has changed — with taller buildings and more infrastructure — but also the attitude of Yutani more than two decades after hosting the games, Dubey said.
Instead of the excitement and anxiety as the state prepared for the 2002 Games, Dubey said he felt “confidence” in the state and its capital after making what was widely considered a successful move as host.
Dubey recalled feeling that the 2002 Games would be something different when he heard now-Sen. Mitt Romney, who chaired the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, broke from the usual pageantry of opening ceremonies to declare, “Is this a party or what?”
“Wow, this is the United States. This is different,’” Dubby remembers thinking.
From a “hidden gem” to a known quantity
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall was a newlywed the last time the Olympics came to town, and she called the opportunity “coming of age” for the city and the state.
“It was a recognition of our place in the world and our potential in the world,” she said.
Fraser Bullock, CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, said it was “an opportunity for the world to really see Utah for the first time, because it was kind of a hidden gem. And we knew it was a gem, but … then, when the world saw not only our beautiful mountains, but also saw fantastic people.”
Local leaders not only see the chance to host again in 2034 as a way to further cement Utah’s legacy on the world stage, but also to continue the growth the state has seen in recent decades.
Natalie Gochnur, executive director at the University of Utah’s Kem S. Gardner Institute for Policy, estimates that the economic impact of another successful Olympics could reach $4 billion for the state and up to $15 billion in personal income. But noting that economists “know the cost of everything and the value of nothing,” she said “the real economic impact of games is that living legacy that lives on in people’s hearts.”
“It’s about hope, inspiration, confidence in ourselves,” Gohnur said. “This is a huge benefit for our country.
Mendenhall proudly noted that many Utahns can still be seen wearing a “free volunteer” after 22 years.
Utah is known for its “service-oriented culture,” Nubia Peña said, and she was proud to see that heritage on full display when she visited the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“We were able to use this world stage to create unity, to inspire and also to welcome an international audience,” said Peña, director of Utah’s Department of Multicultural Affairs.
Sport as a “universal language”
That sense of unity is one of the goals of the Olympic Games, according to Karl Stoss, a member of the International Olympic Committee and chairman of the Commission for Future Hosts. Stoss, who is Austrian, highlighted the friendly rivalry between his country and neighboring Switzerland, pointing out that the Austrians won six more medals than the Swiss during the Salt Lake City Games.
The athletes who compete may come from different countries and represent different political persuasions or religions, but they are united by competition, according to Duby.
“This is important for us and our community to show the world that sports is just one language, a universal language,” Stoss said.
After two consecutive Olympics were affected by COVID-19, Kathryn Rainey Norman, a former Olympic speed skater and chairwoman of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, said the athletes themselves are “looking to regroup” through the Olympic village without pandemic restrictions. The 2024 Summer Games in Paris “will be a beautiful and almost joyous celebration,” she said, adding that the same sense of togetherness would continue if Salt Lake City wins the 2034 bid.
If the stars align again for the city, Mendenhall expects that sense of unity to show at the state and local levels as leaders work together to meet the demands of the moment. Government is typically — and intentionally — slow and sluggish, she said, but “when we commit to a Games, we have a hard deadline” for leaders to make improvements that will benefit Utahns long after the Olympics.
“One of the best ways to feel part of something is to know what direction that thing is going,” she said.
