The Olympics will return to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 10 years after the International Olympic Committee selected the capital of the Beehive State to host the 2034 Winter Olympics on Tuesday.
Months after the IOC opted to enter a “targeted dialogue” with Salt Lake City for the 2034 games, a vote of the committee Wednesday in Paris made the selection official by an 83-6 vote. Salt Lake City previously hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics.
“Salt Lake City and Utah are long-time friends of the Olympic Movement, and we are confident that they will organise exceptional Olympic and Paralympic Games, just as they did years ago,” IOC President Thomas Bach said Wednesday. “The legacy of 2002 is tangibly and passionately alive in Utah. The legacy of 2034 starts today.”
Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) celebrated the selection on Wednesday after years of efforts to return the Winter Games to the United States.
“The Olympics and Paralympics represent so much more than competition. At its core, the Olympic Movement is about building community and celebrating excellence, things we do really well in Utah,” Cox said in a statement. “More than 80 per cent of Utahns and 100 per cent of our elected leaders supported our Olympic bid. We’re ready to host another Olympic Winter Games, and we can’t wait to welcome the world back to Utah in 2034.”
Back at home Utahns are celebrating the Olympics returning to our state in 2034 in downtown SLC. Utah is ready. #LetsGo! pic.twitter.com/QtRTTEgaip
— Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox (@GovCox) July 24, 2024
A crowd gathered in the Salt Lake City early Wednesday morning celebrated the decision, which brings the winter games back to the U.S., for the first time in decades.
“Salt Lake City and the Olympic and Paralympic Movement are deeply connected through values – our commitment to diversity, love for our youth and the tireless work to preserve our environment. These principles are shared through the lens of sport,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said Wednesday.
“I can’t imagine a better partnership than the one we continue to forge with our Olympic partners,” she added.
As part of the celebration, officials relit the 2002 Olympic cauldron at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The stadium, which hosts the University of Utah’s football team, has been proposed to host the opening and closing ceremony for the 2034 games, as it did for the 2002 games.
The cauldron is lit in Salt Lake City!
https://t.co/7FNnvc4Zxa
— Mayor Erin Mendenhall (@slcmayor) July 24, 2024
The bid from Salt Lake City plans for the games to utilize all existing or temporary venues, after past Olympic hosts have decried the cost of building new venues for hosting the games.
At the IOC meeting on Wednesday, officials also awarded the French Alps the 2030 Winter Olympics, under the condition of support from the French government — which will be formed in the coming months following the parliamentary elections earlier this month.
Paris, France, will host the Summer Olympics beginning this week, with the opening ceremony scheduled for Friday. At the closing ceremony in August, Paris will hand over the Olympic flag to Los Angeles, California, which will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
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With the selection of Salt Lake City as the host of the 2034 Winter Olympics, it will mark the fifth time the United States will host the Winter Olympics, having previously done so in Lake Placid, New York, in 1932 and 1980, Squaw Valley, California, in 1960, and Salt Lake City in 2002.
The United States last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996, in Atlanta, Georgia.
