At the risk of casting a jinx on the whole thing — creating a “Dewey defeats Truman” moment — Utahns have every reason to anticipate some really good news in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
That’s when the International Olympic Committee (IOC), meeting ahead of the 2024 Paris Games, is expected to make the final decision awarding the 2034 Salt Lake City Olympics. Utah organizers have done all the work and received a great deal of positive feedback, and no other location is being seriously considered.
And it is probably a good omen that Wednesday is also Utah’s state holiday, Pioneer Day. Or, for those who celebrate, Pie and Beer Day.
This is good news, not only because it will be fun to welcome the world to Utah again, as we did in 2002, but also because the work done and the lessons learned the last time have led to goals that will enhance life in the capitol city and around the state for years beyond the events and the celebrations.
[Tell The Tribune: What is your favorite memory from the 2002 Winter Olympics?]
Utah organizers have made some grand promises and set lofty goals for the return of the Games. They are welcome, and state and local leaders and the community, all of whom have enthusiastically supported the project, should hold them to their plans.
Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, explains how Utah’s experience in hosting the Games last time — and the fact that many of the facilities that were built for 2002 are ready, willing and able to do the job again — gives organizers the opportunity to expand their sights beyond two weeks in February. (And 20 days in March for the Paralympics.)
The Utah committee expects to throw this $4 billion party without any local or state taxpayer contributions, though the state of Utah has basically co-signed to fill in any funding gaps that might occur. And federal funds will help pay for the extensive security operations that will be needed.
The money is to come from private sponsorships, ticket sales, TV rights and from the IOC.
Budget projections outline an expected surplus of $260 million that will be plowed back into the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation and other ongoing sports programs and facilities. Olympic host cities don’t always show a profit, though the 2002 Salt Lake City Games left behind $176 million that provided for the upkeep of various venues and avoided the cost of building new ones for 2034.
As envisioned by the Utah committee, and encouraged by the IOC, the 2034 Games will set goals in three main areas that will benefit Utah far into the future: unity, youth and sustainability.
While the Olympics, like all athletic events, are about competition, they are also about inclusion and reaching across differences of race, gender and nationality. Bringing people together, across all of Utah and around the world, has long been part of the Olympic creed and will be a major mission of these Games.
Plans call for involving young Utahns and their schools in the games. Individual schools are to adopt a participating nation, learn about it, welcome visits from some of its athletes. Scholastic sports programs, particularly in under-funded schools, are to receive financial support.
With a 10-year runway leading up to the Games, there are plans to start involving the young people of Utah now, and perhaps see some of them become competitors come 2034.
One of the points Salt Lake City organizers needed to prove to the IOC was that our Games could be environmentally sustainable, as close to carbon neutral as possible and aware of the needs to lessen — and adapt to — global climate change. Running the Games in an environmentally responsible way includes not just the activities and venues, but also helping Utah to boost its green transportation network in a way that will serve well beyond 2034.
In a state where many political leaders think “inclusion” is a dirty word, and cannot even pronounce “climate change,” such leadership is more than welcome.
Climate also figures into the fact that, as time goes along, there is a real possibility that fewer and fewer places will have the snow necessary to host the Winter Games. Utah, at least for a while, stands to be one of those places, and may well end up a recurring host well into the future.
We’ll be ready.
