The French Alps will host the 2030 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted in Paris on Wednesday. In 2034, Salt Lake City will host the winter event, giving Utah its second Games after hosting them in 2002.
A viewing party was scheduled for 3 a.m. Salt Lake City time — 5 a.m. in Quebec — to celebrate the announcement. Large crowds were expected at the event, which coincides with a holiday marking the date Mormon pioneers discovered the Salt Lake Valley in northern Utah. Olympic fans were already gathering downtown and pitching their tents before sunset Tuesday.
Salt Lake City was the only candidate the IOC considered for 2034. Climate change and high operational costs have reduced the number of cities willing and able to host the Winter Games. Utah has taken advantage of the lack of interest elsewhere, pitching itself to Olympic officials as an enthusiastic repeat host if the committee moves forward with a proposal for a permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities. Olympics executive director Christophe Dubi has said Salt Lake City would be a prime candidate for such a plan.
Local leaders had been aiming to host the Games multiple times even before Salt Lake City hosted its first Games, bid spokesman Tom Kelly said. Remnants of the 2002 Games are scattered throughout the city and have fueled Olympic fever for more than two decades. Organizers of the 2034 Games have touted that lingering enthusiasm throughout the selection process and shown visiting Olympic officials how they have preserved the sites used in 2002.
In its final presentation to the Olympic committee Wednesday morning, the bid team was expected to release its plan for one of the most compact venues in Olympic history, with all venues within an hour’s drive of the athletes’ village on the University of Utah campus. The plan requires no new permanent construction, with all 13 venues already in place and each having played a role when the city first hosted the Games.
For Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, securing the bid was central to his goal of solidifying the state as the winter sports capital of North America. He and other local leaders were in Paris for the bid presentation, while many Winter Olympic athletes stayed in town to train and join in the festivities.
American freestyle skier Christopher Lillis, a gold medallist at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, said the 2034 Games would be a dream come true for young people with Olympic aspirations. Salt Lake City has grown significantly since 2010, when Mr. Lillis said his family began visiting, and the city has become more expensive. Mr. Lillis trained at nearby Utah Olympic Park and said the area’s sports facilities were “top-notch.”
Local leaders had been aiming to host the Games multiple times even before Salt Lake City hosted its first Games, bid spokesman Tom Kelly said. Remnants of the 2002 Games are scattered throughout the city and have fueled Olympic fever for more than two decades. Organizers of the 2034 Games have touted that lingering enthusiasm throughout the selection process and shown visiting Olympic officials how they have preserved the sites used in 2002.
“At the 2002 Olympics, the motto was, ‘The world is welcome here.’ And really what happened is we brought Utah to the world, and now we’re a world-class ski resort,” he said.
For the 2030 Winter Olympics, the delegation from the French Alps was led by President Emmanuel Macron. The presidents of the two regions where the Games will take place, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, were also part of the delegation.
“The French Alps 2030 aims to establish a link between the north and the south of the French Alps to make it a hub for winter sports, with the aim of bringing maximum social and economic benefits to the populations,” the IOC said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.