PARIS — Fraser Bullock was all smiles Thursday morning as he strolled around the French capital’s oldest park.
A day earlier, the 2034 Winter Games were awarded to Utah, a moment he’d been working toward since wrapping up the state’s last Olympics, in 2002. He and the rest of the Utah delegation that traveled to Paris for Wednesday’s vote by members of the International Olympic Committee were ready to enjoy the city.
Bullock, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, had plans to see a 2024 Summer Games handball match with some of the supporters who made the trip, then join a special tour at Versailles, the 2,300-room palace built for French kings.
But then he got an invitation to an even more exclusive event on Thursday, a dinner hosted by IOC President Thomas Bach at the Louvre. The famous museum that houses the “Mona Lisa” and the “Venus de Milo” is closed for the day. Bach’s guest list is expected to include the many members of what’s known as the Olympic family who are in Paris for the Olympics.
“Dang, I’m missing Versailles. But I’m going to the Louvre,” Bullock said, along with the bid committee’s chair, Caterine Raney Norman, a four-time Olympic speedskater. Raney Norman said she’s excited to be attending.
The dinner comes amid continued concern about a U.S. investigation into doping allegations that led the IOC to make a last-minute change in Utah’s host contract. A new clause lets the IOC take back the 2034 Games if U.S. authorities don’t recognize the Canadian-based World Anti Doping Agency as having the final say on doping matters.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Chair Gene Sykes, just named a member of the IOC, told reporters Thursday the contract change “allows the IOC to have an escape clause if the United States somehow undermines it with the world anti-doping code. We’re not going to do that, we’re going to try to make it stronger.”
Leaders of France’s successful French Alps bid to host the 2030 Winter Games were also at the Le Jardin d’Acclimatation Thursday morning, where more than 500 young athletes from around the world, including six from Utah, participated in Sport dans la Ville’s Festival 24.
They, too, ran into issues with their bid after French President Emmanuel Macron called a recently concluded surprise national election before all the required government guarantees were in place. After putting the French Alps bid on hold, the IOC decided to award the 2030 Games but gave the incoming government a deadline to get the deals done.
Courchevel Mayor Jean Yves Pachod congratulated Bullock on Utah’s win after the two were introduced.
“Magnifique. I am very happy for you,” said the mayor of the French Alps ski resort community that also hosted events during the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville. Pachod said it was “very important” that Macron appeared at Wednesday’s IOC meeting. “It is not easy with the situation in France.”