The recent announcement that Salt Lake City was no longer part of the official name of the 2034 Winter Games apparently wasn’t on the agenda when Olympic organizers met with city representatives Tuesday, the latest stop on a “listening tour” of venue communities.
“It’s an issue that’s been discussed. It’s been raised. We’ve established it. And we’ve moved on,” Fraser Bullock, president and executive chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, told reporters after the closed-door meeting.
Salt Lake City will be “the heart of the Games,” Bullock said. “It’s the capital city. It’s the gateway city to the world. It has more events than any other place. It has the village” for athletes at the University of Utah, where Opening and Closing Ceremonies will also be held.
Rachel Otto, chief of staff to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, said the new Utah 2034 name “was outside the scope of what we talked about in that room today. But Salt Lake City is the beginning and the end of the people’s Games.”
Otto, who represented an ailing Mendenhall at the meeting in the Salt Lake City Public Safety Building that was also attended by community and business leaders, said the capital city “is still going to be the hub of the Games....We also want to see every Utahn benefit from the Games.”
It’s been just over two weeks since the Utah 2034 name and logo was unveiled, on a massive new art installation at the Salt Lake City International Airport. While most of the focus has been on complaints about the abstract logo, it’s the new name that upset the mayor.
“It stings,” Mendenhall told the Deseret News about Salt Lake City being dropped from the Games’ official name. Salt Lake City was the official host of the 2002 Winter Games, but the International Olympic Committee now allows multiple cities, regions and even countries to host.
For years, the state has been assuming a bigger role in the next Olympics and Paralympics that follow for disabled athletes. Early on, Mendenhall has said she had to push for Salt Lake City to be included in the name of the bid committee.
Her efforts behind the scenes to do the same for the organizing committee resulted in Salt Lake City appearing in plain type below the new logo on stationery and in some other instances, something other venue cities eventually also will be able to do.
Mendenhall has only advisory roles with the organizing committee. The committee’s leaders were chosen by House Speaker Mike Schultz, Senate President Stuart Adams, and Gov. Spencer Cox, who signed the host contract with the IOC.
Tuesday’s meeting, Bullock said, was about “things like, how do we allow every Salt Laker to experience these Games. So it’s more operationally focused, ambition focused. What are the key initiatives that Salt Lake City has, where we can help them accomplish their dreams.”
Asked if the name change might discourage Salt Lake residents from getting involved in the state’s next Winter Games, Bullock said the Olympics are “going to be right here in their backyard. They’re going to feel it. They’re going to see it.”
Otto, he said, made it clear the city wants “everybody in Salt Lake City to feel part of these Games. So how do we ensure their participation, that they get to come to events that may be ticketed or, if they don’t have a ticket, what are other experiences that we can create for them?”
The city, Otto said, is “really excited to start this conversation” with organizers and others.
Organizing committee leaders have been holding similar meetings in the communities where events will be held during the 2034 Winter Games since May. Salt Lake City will be the site of hockey, curling and big air skiing and snowboard.