Utah’s first Olympics were still two years away when the Deseret News marked its 150th anniversary. Now, 25 years later, preparations are underway for the state to host a second Winter Games, in 2034, with the possibility of even more to come.
For Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, that want to welcome the world is key to the state’s success.
“Utah’s Olympic history is really a cornerstone of our state’s identity,” Cox said. “It‘s one of the Top 10 events ever to impact our state, giving us the opportunity to showcase our ability to unite our communities, deliver world-class events and really leave a lasting legacy.”
He sees Utah’s strong national standing, such as recently being named U.S. News & World Report’s "Best State in the Nation" for a third year in a row, as connected to the 2002 Winter Games.
“It’s a time where we grew up as a state, where we realized what we could accomplish together and it instilled a sense of pride and unity amongst Utahns, which we still rely on,” the governor said, adding those Olympics “really reflected our sense of pride in place”
It all began six decades ago, when a group of civic leaders pulled together a pitch for the 1972 Winter Games to promote the state as a skiing destination. But it would take another 20 years or so before a serious bid was launched, with much higher stakes.
The state had to commit, win or lose, to building $59 million in winter sports facilities to be used for training in order for Salt Lake City to be named America’s choice to host a Winter Games in 1998 or 2002 by what’s now the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Voters approved a 1989 referendum on taxpayer funding of the sliding track, ski jumps and speedskating oval still used today in an election a Deseret News editorial said put Utah “firmly on the path to becoming a major center for winter sports and for training Olympic athletes.”
Three years later, a two-word headline in the newspaper summed up the state’s dashed dreams: “Sayonara, Olympics.”
Members of the International Olympic Committee narrowly selected Nagano, Japan, over Salt Lake City as the 1998 host in the final round of voting. The decision stunned the delegation of Utahns who’d traveled to Birmingham, England, ready to bring home a Games.
Within weeks, backers of the bid announced Utah was going all in for 2002. This time they succeeded, but the more than $1 million in cash, gifts and scholarships handed out to IOC members sparked a global bribery scandal in the late 1990s.
Mitt Romney, a Boston-based venture capitalist with a degree from Brigham Young University, was recruited to rescue the Olympics. Romney, who later ran for president and served as a U.S. senator from Utah, brought in a longtime colleague, Fraser Bullock, as his No. 2.
The pair helped make the 2002 Winter Games one of the best in history, overcoming the scandal and the deadly terrorist attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, that shook the world just a few months before billions turned their attention to Utah.
The nation’s resilience was demonstrated during the Opening Ceremonies at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium when athletes and first responders carried the tattered flag recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Bullock never really left the Olympics behind, working since ‘02 to bring another Winter Games to the state. It wasn’t until 2018 that the U.S. Olympic leaders chose Salt Lake City over Denver to bid for an unspecified future Winter Games.
Then, 2030 was the goal. After behind-the-scenes discussions about the potential financial fallout of also having 2028 Summer Games in the United States, in Los Angeles, Utah bidders declared a preference for 2034 but a willingness to host in 2030 if needed.
Games sites used to be named seven years in advance, but under the IOC’s new, less formal selection process that was put in place as part of the post-bribery scandal reforms, there’s no set schedule for making decisions.
Utah bidders had hoped to be advanced to the final bid phase, known as “preferred host” status, in late 2022, but with public support lagging for the other contenders, Sapporo, Japan, and Vancouver, Canada, the decision was delayed almost a year and new bids encouraged.
The extra time the IOC took to winnow the field was set to be used to examine the impact of climate change on the Winter Games in anticipation of a possible rotation among a permanent group of hosts. That’s since been put on hold, but Cox and others remain hopeful.
Before Utah was picked as the “preferred host” for 2034, and the same designation given to the French Alps, a late entry in the race, for 2030, there also was some wrangling over whether the IOC would hand out both Winter Games at the same time.
In the end, the 2030 and 2034 Games were awarded by the IOC in Paris on July 24 last year, Utah’s Pioneer Day holiday. Thousands of Utahns cheered the coming of a second Olympics in Washington Square in Salt Lake City, ahead of the annual parade celebrating the state’s heritage.
Work is underway on getting ready for what will be a $4 billion event. An Olympic organizing committee has been put together by state leaders who are playing a larger role this time around and there are discussions about what big projects should be tackled between now and 2034.
Utah’s pioneer settlers “would have (been) incredibly excited and proud” of the state’s Olympic history, Cox said, a testament to the transformation of a place once described as “inhospitable and a barren wasteland” into a desired destination.
“They dreamed that someday that people from all over the world would flow into this place,” the governor said of those who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and, 175 years ago, started printing a newspaper. “That we would be hosting multiple Winter Olympics is pretty surreal and awesome.”
