Fraser Bullock wasn’t expecting to meet for around an hour with International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, given her busy schedule during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Games.
But Bullock, the president and executive chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, said the IOC’s new leader wanted an in-depth conversation about Utah’s second time hosting.
So Monday’s meeting scheduled for a half-hour went twice as long, he said.
“We discussed the progress of our Games,” Bullock told the Deseret News. “Among many topics, we covered technology, our generous donors, the excitement in Utah of hosting in 2034 and other areas of our preparation.”
What also came up was Utah’s plans to enhance the Games experience for athletes and communities, including an initiative to assist the families of competitors with housing, transportation and tickets.
“Given that we have all the existing venues in place and everything, we have the opportunity to elevate the Games, like we’ve talked about in different ways. We have the bandwidth to focus on that, and she was very supportive and excited about that,” Bullock said.
The pair had previously served together on an IOC commission, long before Utah was awarded another Winter Games in July 2024. Coventry, an Olympic champion swimmer, was elected the first woman and first African president of the IOC last year.
“She invited me to meet with her, which was really nice,” Bullock said, adding he asked Coventry to visit Utah, where she once taught a swimming clinic. “She’s excited to come. No date has been set yet but it’s on her radar screen.”
He said Coventry, a former government minister in her home country before moving her young family to Switzerland, where the IOC is headquartered, “was warm, insightful and highly supportive. She is extremely bright and wise.”
And, Bullock said, “is very, very supportive of Utah and what we’re doing.”
Having the opportunity to spend time with Coventry “is one of the big benefits of being here,” he said. More than 100 Utahns, including state and local leaders, are in Italy for an up-close look at what’s changed about organizing a Winter Games since Utah last hosted in 2002.
“All these interactions we’re having,” Bullock said, are “just amazing. You can get so much done when you’re face-to-face with people,” including building relationships that will “pay big dividends.”
Much of his time in Italy has been spent working with the IOC on the technology for the 2034 Winter Games, he said, as well as working on hospitality opportunities. He and other Utahns are also participating in the IOC’s observer program that gets them behind the scenes at the Games.
Utah 2034 made their first formal presentation to the IOC in Milan even before last week’s Opening Ceremony. The IOC’s Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, offered only a single piece of advice: Don’t worry yet about the operational details.
“This means focusing on the experience, what truly matters,” Dubi said. “It is not what’s behind the curtain, the systems. It’s all about the experience we can bring, starting with the athletes and then, the rest of the Olympic family.”