When Gov. Gary Herbert first launched the effort more than a decade ago to bring the Winter Games back to Utah, he was determined that next time the state should take the lead, not Salt Lake City.
As a Utah County commissioner during the 2002 Winter Games, Herbert saw little recognition for Provo as a site for Olympic ice hockey practices and competitions at the Peaks Ice Arena, built with the help of local taxpayers.
“We hardly got mentioned ever but we had a major venue,” he said, noting the same was true for other venue locations outside of Salt Lake City — venues in Park City, West Valley City, Kearns, Ogden and the Heber Valley, nearly all of which are set to be used again in 2034.
“So it wasn’t hard for me to explain to anybody that cared as we were putting this together why I thought we needed to broaden our description of who is leading out on the Winter Olympics,” Herbert said. “It was not a hard sell.”
As Utah’s governor from 2009 through 2020, he said he involved state lawmakers in the bid from the beginning. However, Herbert doesn’t remember talking early on to Salt Lake City leaders about putting the state out front.
“I think we just kind of moved in that direction and kind of insisted that’s the way it’s going to be. And no, we didn’t get really any pushback,“ he said. ”Everybody, just with a little bit of common sense, can see that’s probably a better way to represent Utah."
It’s been more than a year since the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Games to “Salt Lake City, Utah‚" in Paris but the makeup of the private nonprofit Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games wasn’t announced until February.
Three top state officials — Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz — all Republicans, chose the new Olympic bosses as well as the community, business and sport leaders who would fill Utah’s 13 spots on the 25-member organizing committee board.
They went with a familiar face for CEO, former Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson. Fraser Bullock, who headed the bid committee and was chief operating officer of the 2002 Winter Games, is the president and executive chair.
Steve Starks, CEO of The Larry H. Miller Company and the former president of the Utah Jazz, is vice chairman of the organizing committee board, along with Wilson. Starks is also the governor’s Olympic adviser.
Besides Utah, the sports world, including the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the IOC, are also represented on the board responsible for overseeing the organizing committee for the Olympic Games, known as an OCOG.
No vote for the Salt Lake City mayor
So what is Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s position on the organizing committee?
Mendenhall was given an honorary title but no vote on the organizing committee board. She was named to the steering committee of advisers to the board and also as head of another advisory-only group representing venue communities.
“I have no voting role,” the mayor, a Democrat, said. “I have access to attend any of the meetings, I’m told, and to speak up in any of the meetings, like the governor and the state leaders who are vice chairs.”
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, in office during the 2002 Games, called that “a huge slap in the face to Salt Lake City.” Anderson unsuccessfully challenged Mendenhall’s bid for a second term in 2023.
Anderson said he was able to be “at the table for everything” as a voting member of the 2002 organizing committee board. This time, though, Mendenhall, along with Cox, are honorary board chairs, while Adams and Schultz are honorary vice chairs.
Mendenhall was not part of a closed-door meeting the governor and legislative leaders held in May with Olympic organizers, described by Bullock as “the first of many” to assure there’s coordination with the state on issues like major transportation projects.
None of this should be a surprise, given what Herbert told her soon after she was first elected in 2019.
“I remember distinctly meeting one on one with Gov. Herbert and feeling a real sense of desired collaboration between the state and city, not an edging out or a power dynamic,” Mendenhall recalled.
But she said Herbert also made it clear he’d decided that this time around, it would be the governor, not the Salt Lake City mayor, who would sign the host contract with the International Olympic Committee.
Mendenhall realized then there was little she could do to stop Salt Lake City from being left out.
“I didn’t say, ‘Well, that’s a disappointment’ or something. I said, ‘I think we’re still capable and we’re interested but I hear you that the decision’s been made,’” she recalled, adding that Herbert assured her that the mayor and the governor would have similar roles going forward.
“I don’t want to say as equals,” the mayor said, but working together. The pair had another conversation soon after her election about Herbert wanting to drop the city’s name from the bid entirely, but Mendenhall has said she “convinced him to keep us in.”
A few months later, in February 2020, it was the mayor and the governor who jointly named the members of the bid committee, known as the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, at a news conference held in the state Capitol’s formal Gold Room.
Throughout the bid, Mendenhall was featured prominently, along with the city’s often more liberal policies on sustainability and other issues important to the IOC. Bullock often referred to her as the bid’s “secret weapon.”
Now, though, the mayor is only one of many Utahns advising the Games decision-makers.
“The state has been clear that they are focused on making these Games about the entire state. And I believe that, in their eyes, Salt Lake City has no more role at that table than any other host community,” Mendenhall said.
“I think they’re technically justified,” she said. “Our name is not on the contract. But we, Salt Lake City, were an excellent partner, if I may say so, in that bid process. And we’ll always continue to be, in whatever role that we’re offered.”
And, the mayor said, Utah’s capital will “still be the epicenter” of the 2034 Games, with athlete housing as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies once again at the University of Utah, and multiple downtown venues including a new temporary big air ski and snowboard jump.
The 48-page contract signed last year by Herbert’s successor, Gov. Spencer Cox, not only spells out that the term host “means the State of Utah, host of the Games,” it also makes the state responsible for any shortfalls in what’s budgeted to be a $4 billion event.
In 2002, when it was then-Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini’s name on the contract, city taxpayers would have been in the same position had state officials not agreed to indemnify the city for any Games losses.
That never became an issue, because the 2002 Olympics ended up some $100 million in the black.
Just like in 2002, the money to pay for staging the 2034 Winter Games is expected to come entirely from private sources, largely revenues from the sale of broadcast rights, sponsorships and tickets, just as it did in 2002.
There are no state or local tax dollars anticipated in the organizing committee budget, although the federal government is expected to help cover the cost of security, with the U.S. Secret Service in charge of what would become a designated “National Special Security Event.”
Why the state is playing a ‘more active role’ in the Olympics
Cox, a former state legislator who served as Herbert’s lieutenant governor, said it’s important for the state’s role to have changed. He, too, said he was hearing during the bid that an Olympics in the state should be seen as “Utah’s Games,” not Salt Lake City’s.
In 2002, “everybody benefited,” Cox said, “and everybody participated. The tens of thousands of volunteers that we had didn’t just come from Salt Lake. And many of the venues were located in other cities as well and those cities wanted to get some credit and, I think, some exposure.”
That left the state wanting “to play a more active role,” the governor said.
“If things go wrong it’s a reflection of the state as well. So we need to make sure that we’re all in this together,” Cox said, recalling the impact of the bribery scandal surrounding the more than $1 million in cash, gifts and scholarships that Utah’s 2002 bidders gave to IOC members.
Mike Leavitt was Utah’s governor when the scandal broke in late 1998. He and Corradini each had their own representatives on the board that had also overseen the bid, and jointly filled other openings.
Up until the scandal, Leavitt said “the state’s role at that point was essentially just to be the guarantor,” acknowledging there was “a bit of an awkwardness in terms of how appointments were made.”
But as the 2002 bid’s excesses made headlines around the world and sparked multiple investigations, Leavitt said in Utah, there was “a vacuum that needed to be filled. And I think the state filled it.”
He took on the task of restoring the state’s reputation, recruiting Mitt Romney, then the financially successful head of a Boston private equity firm, to steer the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.
Romney, who went on to a political career that included running for president and serving as a U.S. senator from Utah, led the transformation of the troubled 2002 Games to an event declared nothing less than “superb” by then-IOC President Jacques Rogge.
“There are few symbols that have more impact than the Olympics,” Leavitt said, in part because “people inherently like to see people doing their best and the Olympics is about doing our best in lots of ways. ... So it has great influence.”
Hosts can “portray about themselves whatever they will. I think it’s safe to say that one of the things that people will appreciate is that Utah will portray itself in its true character, and I’m happy in 2002 that occurred,” he said, and can be expected to again in 2034.
Leavitt said even with the nuts and bolts of pulling together an Olympics, it can help to have the state in charge as “the body that can in fact effectively coordinate and govern to maintain a strong degree of influence” and being willing to apply it.
Still, when it comes to state control over the 2034 Games, “clearly, it could go too far. Clearly, if it were done poorly it would not be good," the former governor said. “But I have confidence that they’ll do well.”
Cox said “the beauty of the state being involved, having a governor and a speaker and a president involved, is that we’re conveners and have the ability to bring people together. It doesn’t mean we’re in charge of every aspect at all. That was never the intention.”
What it does mean for the 2034 Winter Games, Cox said, is “that if taxpayers are going to be on the hook and the state’s reputation is on the hook, we’re going to use it in a way that showcases the best of the state and brings the best of us together.”
The impact of the Paris Olympics
For the Utah House speaker, the state’s larger role ensures Utah values will remain front and center in 2034 after a segment of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris was criticized as mocking the Biblical Last Supper, including by Cox.
“My wife turned to me and said, ‘What the hell is this,’” said Schultz. The Hooper lawmaker attended the ceremonies with his spouse as part of the Utah delegation that traveled to Paris for the IOC vote.
“We’re going to be the opposite of Paris. We’re going to talk about family values. We’re going to talk about what makes Utah unique and different than any other state in the nation, than any other place in the world for that matter,” he said.
While state leaders had long intended to be involved in shaping another Olympics, the controversy at the Paris Games helped underscore the need for “reassuring people that wasn’t going to happen in the state of Utah,” Schultz said.
Organizing committee members were vetted to confirm they shared the same goal, he said.
“Everybody that has been appointed to the board said that they want to reflect Utah values and so I am confident that that’s what’s going to happen,” Schultz said, pointing out that no elected officials were named to the organizing committee.
“I don’t think that politicians should be he voting members on the board honestly, whether it’s the Salt Lake City mayor, the governor or the state (legislative leadership). That’s not the role we wanted to play so there’s no politicians on the board,” he said.
“We wanted to put the right people to make the Games successful. That’s how the board was picked and put together. No political favors, just the right people to make the right decisions to make 2034 a huge success, something that the state of Utah could be proud of,” Schultz said.
The organizing committee is “independent but they still have some state connections and oversight,” he said. “The state will continue to play a supportive role but not get in the middle of the day to day operations. ... We’ll screw it up. We want the professionals running the Games.”
The relationship between organizers and the state
Bullock, who has been working to bring another Olympics to Utah since wrapping up the 2002 Games, said the state’s control this time around has “already had an impact in the structuring of the board. That’s now completed, and we’re off and running.”
Organizers will listen to elected officials at any level, he said.
“It’s not as though we’re a stand-alone entity that is never going to be impacted by thoughts and opinions of our political leaders,” Bullock said, adding that the organizing committee intends to “stay close to them, and carefully weigh their input all along the way.”
But what happens if state leaders don’t like something the organizing committee is doing?
Schultz said if such a situation were to occur, it likely wouldn’t be while he’s in office, so his successor would “have to figure that out at that point in time. But I don’t want to get into hypotheticals.”
Bullock did not directly answer a question about whether state leaders or the organizing committee would have the final say, saying he doesn’t believe there would ever be a disagreement that couldn’t be resolved.
As the Games’ host, the state provides the financial guarantee and “there are rights that go along with that responsibility,” Bullock said, including having the final say over the board membership that he said was selected through a collaborative process.
Organizers are “frequently” in touch with Mendenhall on various issues, he said, and although the Salt Lake City mayor doesn’t have a vote, “her involvement with us and partnership runs very deep.”
The decision to make Utah the host avoided the “legal complexity and challenges” of indemnifying Salt Lake City against any losses, Bullock said, because the state “has the financial wherewithal to stand behind the financial delivery of the Games.”
That allowed for a more straightforward host arrangement, “something far more clear and simple,” he said.
A governor couldn’t sign the host contract when the 2002 Games were awarded in the mid-1990s because then, the IOC only allowed cities to bid. But after the bribery scandal surfaced, the Switzerland-based IOC overhauled the bidding process.
More changes came as part of what the IOC called “Olympic Agenda 2020,” including allowing bids from multiple cities, regions and countries and renaming the “Host City Contract” the “Olympic Host Contract.”
The world’s next Olympics, the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, are named for both the city and the mountain ski resort located more than 250 miles away where events will be held. The 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps will include venues as far south as the French Riviera.
The intent of the latest reforms are to allow “greater flexibility in the hosting model to promote sustainability and align the Games with regional development goals,” an IOC spokesperson told the Deseret News.
“This model encourages collaboration across different tiers of government, helping to strengthen Games planning and delivery while ensuring maximum use of existing venues,” the spokesperson said.
For the 2034 Games, “the IOC is working in close collaboration with the OCOG, the USOPC and stakeholders across city, state and federal levels. This integrated approach can support more effective decision-making, broader public engagement, and stronger legacy outcomes.”
Utah’s Olympic laws
The state’s new role was made clear in legislation passed in 2023 and updated earlier this year, sponsored by Rep. Jon Hawkins, R-Pleasant Grove, the House chairman of the Legislature’s Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Coordination Committee.
Hawkins’ HCR8 offered a list of assurances to the IOC about what the state agreed to do as host, including respect and support the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
His HB430 authorized the governor to “enter into a host agreement on behalf of the state that provides state security” to cover unpaid debts or losses from the Games. The bill also created the Games coordination committee, to oversee the impact of hosting on the state.
That now includes receiving once-yearly reports from the organizing committee and monitoring the use of state funds allocated to Olympic venue improvements that so far, adds up to more than $90 million.
This year’s update, HB321, designates the state’s governor, Senate president and House speaker as “host representatives,” responsible for approving the organizing committee leadership in order for the Games to receive state services or resources.
Hawkins said state leaders made the organizing committee appointments because “it’s broader than just a Salt Lake City-based Games. It’s a Utah Games.” He called it “a great move” to name the mayor, governor and legislative leaders to honorary roles rather than to voting positions.
“There’s a lot more at stake here than just the political community,” he said. “I think it was a really robust board that they created, with the intention of creating these Games for the benefit of the people of Utah.”
The impact of the state’s involvement in setting up the organizing committee on the Legislature’s oversight remains to be seen, Hawkins said.
“I don’t know if it makes it easier or harder. We’ll go find that out,” he said. “But I think the people that they’ve chosen for the board and the leadership within the organization are really, really solid people. I’m excited to see how it all comes together and how it all proceeds.”
