It’s going to take a lot of work for Utah to host the 2034 Winter Games.
That’s the takeaway for Gov. Spencer Cox after spending a week in Italy last month during the Milan Cortina Winter Games, observing the behind-the-scenes operations that make the Olympics and Paralympics for athletes with disabilities run.
“It’s really incredible how much it takes to put on a Games. So I came away, I think, equal parts excited and cautious about all the work that needs to be done,” the governor told the Deseret News.
He spent time in Milan’s command center for the 2026 Winter Games, watching Italian organizers scramble to deal with situations like power outages that cut off communications with some remote mountain venues.
“I was at the headquarters where all the decisions were being made. I was watching the problems come in from different venues in real time, seeing how all the technology merged together, how they were dispatching people to help,” the governor said.
Milan’s unfinished venues, untrained volunteers
While touring “the bowels of venues,” Cox said he spotted signs of the last-minute efforts to finish construction at a newly built community center on the outskirts of the city used for hockey competitions.
Plastic zip ties were used to secure temporary lights to a stairwell railing, and “they were just putting paint on the walls,” he said, adding, “that’s not Italy’s fault. It’s hard to host the Games, especially when you have to add new facilities.”
There were also what Cox termed training issues with some of Italy’s many Olympic volunteers, leading to “long lines. People were struggling with concessions in some places,” as well as how the chain of command worked.
That may be normal in any new job, the governor said, but the thousands of people donating their time and “giving their best” to the Games were confronted by concerns that may have been avoided with more preparation from organizers.
“You have to be thoughtful and try and anticipate as many problems as you possibly can, so that when they do occur, you know exactly what you need to do,” he said, noting many of the difficulties he witnessed were “just little things, but things you don’t really think about.”
There were positives, too, such as the quality of the temporary practice rinks set up for the Italian Games. Cox said something similar could be installed in the parking lot of the Maverik Center, the site of figure skating and short-track speedskating in 2034.
“Those are some of the things we were really blown away with, how nice these temporary facilities were. Not kind of what you would think or expect, when you think of temporary. These were professional, solid, just impressive venues,” he said.
The ability of Italian organizers to pull together and quickly share data not only among themselves but also outside experts in other parts of the world and the announcers at the venue also impressed the governor, who said the technology can only get better for 2034.
‘There’s just so much’ to hosting the Olympics
The trip made it clear to him the magnitude of putting on a Games.
While the $4 billion 2034 Winter Games are being run by a privately funded organizing committee, it’s the governor who signed the contract with the International Olympic Committee guaranteeing that Utah taxpayers will pick up any shortfall.
The 2002 Winter Games were hosted by Salt Lake City, but this time around, the state is playing a much larger role, choosing the organizing committee leaders and dubbing 2034 the Utah Games.
The governor said the state will work closely with what’s formally known as the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to make sure Utah takes advantage of the years between now and 2034.
“There’s just so much,” the governor said, even though Utah isn’t starting from scratch.
“That’s the good news,” he said. “But it does mean that, look, the earlier we are when it comes to training and having venues ready and getting people on the ground, the more opportunity (we’ll) have to work through those kinks before it’s really Games time.”
Much of that burden will be on the organizing committee, Cox said, but the state has “to help make sure that we have all that, everything that they need in place to be successful,” including transportation and other infrastructure.
The state may also help recruit volunteers, the governor said, something that wasn’t done in 2002. That’s not expected to start for years, with the final selection for some 25,000 spots not coming until a year or so before the Games.
“Our role will be to help get the word out, to make sure that we’re using the resources we have available,” he said, citing “our ability to communicate with the people of Utah around what that’s going to look like and how people can get involved.”
Keeping politics out of the Games
What about ensuring the focus stays on sports at the Games, a plea Cox made at a news conference in Milan about Utah’s next Winter Games when pressed about President Donald Trump’s criticism of a Team USA member with “mixed emotions” about representing his country?
“I’m not sure there’s anything that the state can do to keep politics out of it except to just make sure that everything we do is politically neutral, that we recognize the Games for what they are, an opportunity to bring people together, to unite people,” he said.
That can happen, the governor said, “not just in our country, but all across the world. At least at the local level, we can do everything possible to keep politics out of that. That’s really important. We saw that a little bit in Paris when it came to the Opening Ceremonies.”
At the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, where Utah was awarded a second Winter Games, Cox and others condemned what they said was a mockery of the biblical Last Supper during a segment of the Opening Ceremony. French organizers later apologized, saying that was not their intent.
Cox expects Utah to avoid a similar situation.
“We want to make sure that we do things the ‘Utah way,’ that we’re not looking for controversy. We’re looking for unity, and celebrating the great people of Utah and the people all across the world,” he said.
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” the governor said. “I think that will be really easy for us because it’s one of the things we do best.”
Despite the work he now knows is ahead, after being in Italy he sounded more upbeat than ever about 2034.
“The first thing I learned is Utah is an even better place than I thought to host the Olympics,” Cox said. “We’re just so very lucky to have the resources that we have here, the people we have here, and the geography that we have here that’s going to make this really a spectacular Games.”
That geography allows all of the venues to be within an hour of the athlete housing that once again will be at the University of Utah, making the 2034 Games one of the most compact. The Milan Cortina Games, however, were the most widespread, stretching across northern Italy.
The contrast did not go unnoticed, the governor said.
“That’s the cool part, I had so many people tell me while we were there that they can’t wait to come back to Utah,” Cox said. “I heard that everywhere we went, unprompted. Whenever they heard we were from Utah, they’d just get this smile on their face.”