Nearly a quarter century ago, Salt Lake City’s winning bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics became mired in a vote-buying scandal over a bribery campaign to curry support among members of the International Olympic Committee.
Here’s a quick review of Utah’s quest for the Games and how that global scandal unfolded:
1965 • Then-Utah Gov. Calvin Rampton; Max Rich, head of the Salt Lake Chamber; and Jack Gallivan, Salt Lake Tribune publisher, hatch a whiskey-infused idea to promote Utah’s ski industry with a bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics. Those Games are awarded to Sapporo, Japan.
(Robert H. Woody | The Salt Lake Tribune) In 1966, Utahns attended an IOC meeting in Rome to pitch the idea of Salt Lake City hosting the 1972 Winter Olympics. From left: Jack Gallivan, Salt Lake Tribune publisher; Dev Jennings, president of the Utah Ski Association; Gene Donovan; Maxwell E. Rich, Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce president; Walker Wallace; F. C. Koziol Wasatch/Cache National Forest supervisor; and Glen Adams.
1972 • Salt Lake City offers itself to the IOC as a fallback venue when Colorado voters reject the 1976 Winter Games, originally awarded to Denver, in a referendum. The IOC switches to Innsbruck, Austria.
1986 through 1995 • Tom Welch, a lawyer from Ogden, and economic development executive David Johnson cultivate ties with IOC members and the heads of international sports federations as part of an ad hoc Salt Lake bid committee.
(Francois Mori | AP) Members of the Salt Lake City delegation for the 2002 Winter Olympics, from left to right, Harvey Shiller, U.S. Olympic Committee executive director; Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini; Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt; Tom Welch, president of the Salt Lake Olympic bid committee; and Franck Joklik, chair of the Salt Lake Olympic bid committee, pose with their flag in Paris on Saturday, Aug. 27, 1994, after making a presentation to the executive board of the International Olympic Committee.
June 15, 1991 • Salt Lake City loses its fourth Olympic bid, after more than a decade of trying, falling four votes short to Nagano, Japan, as host for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Late 1991-1992 • Stung by reports of Nagano and other bid cities spending lavishly on gifts and special treatment to woo IOC support, city organizers launch a quiet campaign to win over IOC members in what would mushroom into the Salt Lake Olympic bribery scandal. Utah spends millions on Olympic bidding, with much of that going to fly IOC members to the state to see sports venues to be built for the Games.
(Laurent Gillieron | Pool) Olympic rings are pictured in front of the Olympic House, headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland.
June 16, 1995 • At its 104th session held in Budapest, Hungary, the IOC picks Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Games, over competing bid cities in Canada, Switzerland and Sweden. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch famously announces the winner as “the city of Salt Lake City.” Nearly 50,000 people gather at City Hall to cheer the announcement.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs at Salt Lake City Hall while the American Fork Marching Band stands at attention on June 16, 1995, during the celebration of the IOC's awarding of the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City.
July 29, 1997 • Tom Welch resigns as chief organizer of the 2002 Winter Games after being charged with domestic violence against his then-wife, Alma Welch.
Feb. 7-22, 1998 • Nagano hosts the 1998 Winter Olympics, with Salt Lake City organizers and some of Utah’s top elected officials in attendance.
(Doug Mills | AP) Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini waves the Olympic flag after it was presented to her by Juan Antonio Samaranch during the XVIII Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony at Minami Nagano Sports Park on Sunday, Feb. 22, 1998, in Nagano Japan. The flag would fly over Salt Lake City through the end of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
April 1998 • Salt Lake Olympic organizers revise their bylaws to allow any member to be fired for providing confidential information to the media.
Nov. 24, 1998 • KTVX reporter Chris Vanocur obtains and reports on a draft letter referring to tuition payments by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee on behalf of the daughter of an IOC member from Cameroon.
(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) During a tour of the University of Utah on April 25, 1997, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, second from right, was escorted by Gov. Mike Leavitt, left, Salt Lake Organizing Committee Chairman Frank Joklik, second from left, and SLOC President Tom Welch, right.
December 1998 • Marc Hodler, a Swiss IOC member with purview over the Salt Lake Olympic organizing effort, accuses several IOC colleagues of accepting bribes in bidding processes as far back as 1990. Salt Lake City’s bribery scandal breaks open worldwide. The IOC, the U.S. Olympic Organizing Committee, their Salt Lake City counterparts and the U.S. Department of Justice all launch investigations. Those probes find Salt Lake City’s bid committee gave out more than $1 million in cash, scholarships, health care, expensive gifts and other favors to IOC members and their family members. An ethics panel’s investigation brings to light a litany of ski trips, Utah Jazz tickets, guns, housing, medical procedures, job opportunities, musical instruments and other benefits spread among IOC members as well as salaries paid to some of their children.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Former Salt Lake Organizing Committee boss Tom Welch.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Former Salt Lake Olympic bid committee executive Dave Johnson overlooks one of the many boxes at the "war room" used in his defense on bribery charges.
(Douglas C. Pizac | AP) Media members are handed copies of a 300-plus page ethics report on the Salt Lake Organizing and Bid committees in connection in winning the 2002 Winter Olympics on Feb. 9, 1999, in Salt Lake City.
Jan. 8, 1999 • With confidence from corporate sponsors wavering, Johnson, the Salt Lake bid committee’s vice president, and Frank Joklik, president of the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee, or SLOC, resign, though Joklik is not formerly linked to the scandal.
(Douglas C. Pizac | AP) Frank Joklik, outgoing president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, leads the way through a maze of media as he, spokesperson Frank Zang and chair Robert Garff, left, arrive at a news conference Sunday, Jan. 24, 1999, in Salt Lake City.
Jan. 24, 1999 • The IOC votes to expel six of its members over their involvement in the scandal after an investigative report, the first action of its kind in the committee’s century-old history. Ten members are ultimately kicked off the prestigious panel governing the Olympic movement and 10 others are sanctioned.
Feb. 11, 1999 • Mitt Romney, formerly the CEO of Bain Capital, is brought in as president and CEO of SLOC and launches a reorganization that closes massive shortfalls in the city’s Olympic budget and restores enthusiasm among crucial financial sponsors of the Games.
(Douglas C. Pizac | AP) Mitt Romney, after his selection as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.
Later in 1999 • As part of a 50-point reform plan, the IOC introduces age and term limits, and adds 15 former Olympic athletes as members. On-site visits to Olympic venues by IOC members and any gifts above nominal value are banned.
July 16, 2001 • Four of 15 felony charges filed against Welch and Johnson in the vote-buying scandal are dismissed, only to be reinstated on appeal.
Sept. 11, 2001 • Terrorists fly hijacked jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania in coordinated attacks.
Feb. 8, 2002 • Amid heightened security, President George W. Bush officially opens the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the first held in the U.S. since 1980. A tattered flag saved from the World Trade Center is unfurled during the Opening Ceremony at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Members of the United States Olympic team carry an American flag, which was damaged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, during the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2002.
Feb. 24, 2002 • Closing ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Games mark one of the most financially successful Games in the history of the Olympic movement, with record TV viewership.
(Paul Fraughton | The Salt Lake Tribune) The stage ice is covered with colored sand under black light during the Closing Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2002.
December 2003 • Before the federal case against Welch and Johnson goes to a jury, federal Judge David Sam rules there is insufficient evidence to support convictions on any of the charges against them. The judge denounces the felony prosecutions, saying that in 40 years of work in the criminal justice system, he hadn’t seen a case so devoid of “criminal intent or evil purpose.”
(Douglas C. Pizac | AP) Tom Welch leaves federal court after a motion to dismiss was made by the defense in the Salt Lake Olympic bribery scandal, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2003, in Salt Lake City.
Sept. 10, 2013 • Current IOC President Thomas Bach is elected and the powerful 105-member IOC begins upending much of its long-standing approach for choosing Olympic host cities, favoring those with existing sporting venues and confirmed support from residents.
July 24, 2024 • In the wee hours of Pioneer Day, a state holiday in Utah, the IOC meeting in Paris, awards Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Olympics.
