On the road to Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 – IOC President visits host of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2034
30 September 2024 – Two months after the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2034 were awarded to Salt Lake City-Utah by the 142nd IOC Session in Paris, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach visited Salt Lake City and the State of Utah. He returned 22 years after the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2002.
During his two-day stay he met the Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 team led by its President and CEO Fraser Bullock, their many supporters from the private sector and officials from the city and the state. Bach was accompanied by IOC Member and USOPC President Gene Sykes. He was greeted on arrival by Bullock, Board Chair of Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 Catherine Raney Norman, and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
“Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 can become for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games what Paris 2024 has been for the Summer Games: Games of a new era,” the IOC President said during his visit. “Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 can offer once more transformative Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games as was the case in 2002.”
Bullock explained: “Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a special privilege unlike anything else in the world.” He called it a “marvellous opportunity” to be able to have nine-and-a-half years to prepare for the Games and to use this platform as a “catalyst for good here and in the world”.
During his visit, the IOC President met dozens of Olympic and Paralympic athletes and Olympic hopefuls, and saw many of the venues from Salt Lake City 2002 that are a legacy from those Games and will also be used for the Games in 2034, including the Kahlert Village at the University of Utah, which will be the Athletes’ Village during the Games. He took part in a number of panel discussions with Olympians and Olympic hopefuls who live and train in the area.
At a reception with leading members of the private sector, local and regional political leaders and Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the President discussed the opportunity to engage local communities from across the state in the excitement of the Games. He praised the strong collaboration of the private sector and public authorities, as organising the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a complex undertaking.
He also praised the leadership of Fraser Bullock, who was the key reason why the IOC awarded the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2034 to Salt Lake City-Utah a whole 10 years before the Opening Ceremony. Mr Bullock was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Salt Lake Organising Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, which was “so ably and successfully led by Senator Mitt Romney”, as Thomas Bach said.
The IOC President said to Bullock: “Based on your great experience from 2002, and together with your dream team and all the stakeholders involved, you will create a legacy from 2034 that will shine even brighter for generations to come.”
During this event, Mayor Erin Mendenhall explained how the Olympic Winter Games Salt Lake City 2002 have positively shaped the city and the state: “Sport is personal to us. It is so deeply ingrained in our culture. Salt Lake City and the State of Utah had our coming of age in this century in 2002. We have been growing from the Games. It is in our DNA. It never has left, and the evolution you see in Salt Lake City, the rich diversity which is growing in the state since 2002 – all has the Olympics in the DNA.” Utah is the youngest state in the USA.
In separate meetings, he also met leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, together with some of the state’s senior political leaders.
During a tour of the Delta Centre, home of the Utah Jazz NBA team and a new NHL hockey team, their owner, Ryan Smith, gave an impressive presentation on the future vision for downtown Salt Lake City and how the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2034 will benefit from this development.
At a visit to another legacy venue from 2002, the Olympic Oval, the IOC President got to meet many of the athletes training there, a number of them from overseas. He also met children taking part in sporting activities – another legacy of the Olympic Games in 2002. The new NHL hockey team is using the Oval as a temporary training centre.
Later, he visited the Utah Olympic Park and saw and spoke to athletes practising skiing and sliding sports at the summer training centre, which includes pools and airbags for practising freestyle skiing and snowboard.
At the end of his visit, President Bach attended a college football game between the Utah Utes and the Arizona Wildcats at the Rice-Eccles Stadium. This was the venue for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2002, and still has the cauldron from those Games. It is planned to host the ceremonies of the 2034 Games there, as well.
