Just days after taking office, new International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe announced changes could be coming to the bid process used last year to select Utah as the host of the 2034 Winter Games.
Coventry, the first woman and first African to lead the IOC, told reporters working groups will be formed to study the new, less formal process for choosing Olympic hosts as well as to take a leading role in finding what she described as ways to “protect the female category” in sports.
Both issues came up during her daylong “pause and reflect” session Tuesday with some 70 IOC members gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland, to see her take office ahead of a two-day Executive Board meeting that ended Thursday.
The focus of her comments to reporters, however, was on the bid process.
“There was a lot of discussion from all of the members on when is the appropriate time to select a future host,” Coventry said, as well as how members could become more involved in the bid process, now largely controlled by the president and other members of the Executive Board.
The new bid process that was part of the reforms instituted under her predecessor, Thomas Bach of Germany, eliminated the timeline that required Olympic Games hosts to be named seven years in advance.
The next two Summer Games — 2028 in Los Angeles and 2032 in Brisbane, Australia — both ended up being handed out 11 years in advance. Utah’s second Winter Games, awarded in July 2024 in Paris, also were awarded well ahead of the previous timeline.
But the 2030 Winter Games weren’t given to the French Alps until that same IOC session in Paris. This gives organizers of France’s next Olympics, already a late entry into the race to host in 2030, less than six years to prepare.
Coventry said the IOC will continue to meet with potential hosts, including a group from India seeking the 2036 Summer Games planning to travel to Switzerland next week. Also, the preferential status given to a Swiss bid for the 2038 Winter Games will remain in place.
The possible future hosts will be asked about the process, she said, but among IOC members, “it was very much of the opinion that we need to ensure one, have more membership engagement, and two, that we look at the timing.”
When it comes to siting an Olympics, IOC members want to determine “when is the most appropriate time, when is the best time, when is the most effective time,” Coventry said, “where we’re not going to overburden any of the stakeholders or the OCOGs (organizing committees).”
Olympic organizers will be asked to participate, too, she said.
Fraser Bullock, president and executive chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, told the Deseret News that Utah organizers didn’t talk about the bid process during their meetings in Switzerland with IOC staff.
“Our discussions with the Games delivery team were just about our Games, looking forward and putting together a planning process,” Bullock said, adding “it’s always good, with a change in leadership, to take a step back and look at everything.”
Previous IOC presidents did the same after their elections, he said, including Jacques Rogge of Belgium, who presided over Utah’s 2002 Winter Games. Bullock, the 2002 chief operating officer, helped Rogge conduct a “strategic audit” of the IOC afterwards.
Calling the review healthy, Bullock said with the bid process, the IOC “has the luxury of time because Games have already been awarded out through 2034. ... So there’s time to be able to reassess and reexamine what makes the most sense.”
Long involved with the IOC as well as Utah’s Olympic hopes, Bullock said he believes the bid process established under Bach “has been very, very effective but I also understand the perspective” about the call for more involvement by IOC members.
He said a key element of any bid is enthusiasm, which can be derailed over time. That happened with bids from Sapporo, Japan, and Vancouver, Canada, that at one time were competing with Utah for a Winter Games.
“When a particular host has everything aligned, whether it’s local support, state support or federal support, that’s the time to go, if possible. Because that alignment can quickly change for any host,” he said, as government leadership changes.
“That’s unlikely in the state of Utah because we love the Games so much, but for given hosts, it can be challenging to keep everything aligned,” Bullock said. In 2023, he’d suggested sustaining support in Utah might be difficult without some sort of “positive signal” from the IOC.
Bullock said Thursday that with the extra time, Utah organizers “get to use the power of the Games movement to be able to have an impact on our communities in a very positive way. So we don’t need this extra time for preparation but we can certainly use (it).”
Coventry responded to a Deseret News question about her message for Utahns who have years to wait by saying the IOC also is looking at “when there is a long lead-up time, what is our role to support those cities and keep the engagement.”
As the former chair of the IOC commission overseeing the Brisbane Games, Coventry said “this was something we consistently asked ourselves,” leading to many conversation with Australian organizers about what it looks like to keep up the engagement and excitement.
“I think really my best advice to Utahns is that the Games are coming. I really think it’s more about just creating that local community engagement,” she said, getting local sports organizations ad athletes involved.
“There’s really not too much more we can do in these next few years but just create the momentum that can be leveraged from the local communities and the engagement that you can see from the local (sports organizations),” Coventry said.
She did note that “there is a lot of excitement” in Utah about hosting a second time. Deseret News polling over the years has measured support for another Winter Games in the state at around 80%.