PARIS − The Winter Olympics are officially returning to the United States.
More specifically, the Games are coming back to Utah.
International Olympic Committee members voted Wednesday to formally award the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City, making Utah's capital a repeat Olympic host more than three decades after it served as the site of the 2002 Olympics. It will be the fifth time the U.S. has hosted the Winter Games.
"We are ready. Everything is in place," Fraser Bullock, leader of Salt Lake City's bid committee, said in a presentation at the IOC session Wednesday. "But beyond our physical assets, you can count on our people. As great as our venues are, our people are even better."
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Wednesday's vote was essentially a rubber stamp; Salt Lake City already had been handpicked by the committee as the best option for 2034. Though it did come with a bit of unexpected controversy − a strange scene in which committee members used the moment to rip the United States for its recent political actions around the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the controversial doping case involving 23 Chinese swimmers.
"I'm sorry for you, and for us, that this issue arose now," IOC president Thomas Bach told Salt Lake's bid committee.
Ultimately, though, the last-minute concerns were never going to be enough to derail Wednesday's vote, which passed 83-6. The news prompted celebration in the early morning hours back in Utah, where the committee 's vote coincided with a state holiday, Pioneer Day.
Members also signed off on the French Alps as host of the 2030 Winter Games earlier in the day.
In the hour before the vote to award the Winter Games to Salt Lake City, they took an uncommon detour to express concerns about how a doping scandal involving Chinese swimmers has been handled in the U.S.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and its chief executive officer, Travis Tygart, have been extremely critical of WADA's handling of the Chinese swimmers case, in which 23 athletes tested positive for a banned heart medication ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Games. WADA accepted the results of a Chinese government investigation that attributed the positive tests to contamination at a hotel and neither publicly disclosed the tests at the time.
USADA's criticism has been followed by a congressional hearing and a reported investigation by U.S. law enforcement, apparently under the auspices of the Rodchenkov Act, which allows U.S. authorities to pursue criminal charges in doping cases that affect U.S. athletes.
It is the Rodchenkov Act, in particular, that seemed to prompt the ire of IOC members ahead of Wednesday's vote. And John Coates, one of Bach's top lieutenants, said the committee went so far as to amend Salt Lake's host city contract to address the matter. According to Coates, the IOC can terminate the host contract if "the supreme authority of (WADA) in the fight against doping is not fully respected."
Gene Sykes, who chairs the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, responded to the members' concerns by praising WADA and renewing the United States' commitment to clean sport.
"We certainly accept the obligations and responsibility inherent in the amendment to the Olympic host contract," Sykes said. "So from our perspective, we take very seriously to heart all of your comments, and we pledge to you that we will be good partners and we will support, with you, this very, very important institution."
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has supported Salt Lake City as a host candidate since 2018, and it has been clear for several years now that the IOC would award Utah another version of the Games at some point.
For a time, the only realistic question was whether Salt Lake would host the Winter Games in 2030 or 2034.
Bid leaders said they would be open to either but preferred 2034 to allow for more of a cushion after the United States' hosting of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The city is uniquely positioned as a host in part because it has meticulously maintained the venues that were used in 2002 through the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit created after those Games. Olympic officials also value Salt Lake City's reliable winter climate. Because of climate change, fewer cities can be counted upon to have the ideal weather for hosting the Winter Games during their usual scheduling slot in early to mid-February.
The Salt Lake Games will use 12 existing venues, only four of which will require additional and permanent upgrades before 2034, according a report released in June by the IOC's future host commission. The only temporary venue that will need to be built is for snowboard big air.
As for the big-ticket items, the University of Utah's campus is expected to double as the Olympic village during the Games, and the Delta Center − home to the NBA's Utah Jazz − will host one of the Winter Olympics' marquee sports, figure skating. Skiing events will be held at Snowbasin Resort, about 35 minutes northeast of downtown Salt Lake City, and snowboarding events will be in Park City.
Karl Stoss, chair of the future host commission for the Winter Games, has praised Salt Lake's plan for the Games as "very compact" and said it would require no capital investment.
The Salt Lake Games have an official budget of about $4 billion, and organizers claim they will be 100% privately funded − pulling money from ticket revenue, domestic sponsorships and an IOC contribution. The Olympics, however, have a habit of stretching beyond initial estimates. And they tend to put additional strain on public works and utilities in the host city, which is sometimes underestimated in budgets.
For decades, the IOC welcomed bids from multiple countries for one edition of the Games and essentially let them duke it out for votes. But that's not how it works anymore. The IOC's host selection process is far more amorphous, with potential hosts progressing through several loose stages of "dialogue" so that by the time they are put up for a vote, like Salt Lake City was Wednesday, the decision has essentially already been made.
That's all to say that it's not super-clear which bids, if any, Salt Lake City beat out. It was in the mix with the French Alps, Sweden and Switzerland for potential hosting duties, while Canada and Japan also expressed some level of interest. Ultimately, the IOC appears to have picked the French Alps and Salt Lake City from the bunch and then just figured out the timing of who would host when.
Here's a quick rundown of future Olympic hosts.
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on social media @Tom_Schad.
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