SALT LAKE CITY — Lindsey Vonn was 17 years old, in awe of her competition and feeling the weight of her first Winter Olympic experience. Before becoming one of the most decorated alpine skiers in the history of the sport, Vonn was just a kid hoping to stay on the slope when she made her Olympic debut at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City 22 years ago. She finished sixth in the combined event and 32nd in slalom.
The impact of her experience in Utah so long ago carried her through the ensuing years of golden dominance. So much so that she kept coming back whenever she could. Before retiring from it in 2019, after a series of serious knee injuries, her home was the suitcase she carried while she trotted the world. Still, when she was asked where her home base was, she mentioned a number of places and always made sure to include Utah.
Vonn, now 39, serves on the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. And with the International Olympic Committee apparently poised to award the Beehive State the 2034 Winter Games, its second Olympics, Vonn believes the sustainability model for the quadrennial spectacle is to move toward a rotational approach. . And he said Salt Lake City should be at the top of the list.
“I think today it’s no longer a feasible plan,” Vonn said. The Athletic recently. “We need to have a more sustainable option and I think Salt Lake is the best Olympic option that is available to the world right now.”
The future of the Winter Games is clouded by governing bodies resisting being asked to spend billions of dollars on venues that will not be used once the three-week event ends. Climate change has wiped out potential guests as snow levels fall in many countries around the world. The IOC can no longer operate on the assumption that the Winter Games are going to be a tempting endeavor for potential host cities, or even feasible to hold in many parts of the world.
Gone are the days when the IOC wanted cities and countries to compete openly against each other in the hope of receiving the bid. The IOC now has a future hosts commission that goes through potential hosts and sends their data and reports to the IOC executive board, which then decides whether or not to put their suggestion to a vote at an IOC session.
The future IOC host commission recently spent a week in Utah on an official visit to the tour venues and heard the SLC-Utah Committee’s pitch for bringing back the Games.
“This city and this region are a hidden treasure,” said Olympic Games CEO Christophe Dubi. “The rest of the world has memories of 2002, but this place has changed profoundly. “This story needs to be told.”
A quick Google search shows the state of former state-of-the-art Olympic facilities that are now dormant homes for rodents, weeds and stagnant water.
In Rio de Janeiro, the aquatic center built for the 2016 Summer Games was left as an empty stadium. The 35,000-seat Olympic Stadium erected for the opening and closing ceremonies in Pyeongchang, South Korea, has just been completed. a mound of grass in the form of an amphitheater, empty. In total, South Korea spent approximately $13 billion for the 2018 Winter Games.
In Tokyo, the gymnastics center built for the 2020 Summer Games is unused and surrounded through empty parking lots and doors with the same signs still hanging with instructions to enter. It was paid for by Tokyo taxpayers and cost approximately $180 million.
A so-called “white elephant” property requires exorbitant expenses and a lot of maintenance, and is worth little to zero once completed. They are scattered throughout cities around the world. Hosting an Olympic Games was once perceived to be the most prestigious honor in sports, but residents of prospective cities have woken up to the waste of taxpayer money.
But it hasn’t been a waste in Salt Lake City. The locations have been maintained and used over and over again for the past 22 years.
The Olympic Oval west of the city center has hosted World Cup and World Championship speed skating events. Utah Olympic Park in Park City has also remained in the rotation for the World Cup and World Championship events in luge, luge and skeleton. Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, which is 45 minutes away in Heber Valley, has continued to host cross-country skiing and biathlon events. And the several ski resorts within an hour of the city center continue to be stops for world-class freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions. More than 90 The Winter Olympics World Cup and World Championships have been held in Utah since 2002.
“It’s really great to see that we are not looking for white elephants in the field: we found excellent, newly used venues for the next Winter Olympic Games,” said Karl Stoss, future president of the IOC host commission.
Salt Lake City, considered “climate reliable” and with venues ready to go, is the leading candidate to host the 2034 Winter Olympics, just 32 years after hosting it in 2002. (Tim De Waele / Getty Images)
Following the 2002 Games, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation assumed responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the venues. The foundation received an endowment of 76 million dollars after the Games. With options around the world dwindling for the IOC, Utah’s Olympic legacy makes it not only a logical choice to return in 2034, but beyond.
“We have all the infrastructure. We have all the headquarters. We have the right altitude. “We can be economically smart in hosting the Games,” Vonn said. “It’s a very different task when you have to basically build a complete Olympic stadium for all your sports. It’s just not how it’s usually approached. With that, it is clear why we are the best option for 2034 and beyond.”
During the IOC delegation’s stop, Stoss said Salt Lake City and Utah are a model for other future hosts around the world.
“We have to think about how to bring winter sports to all continents, not just America,” Stoss said. “It will be a challenge for us to think about how we could motivate other nations and other national committees to participate in the Winter Games.”
While it is all but confirmed that Salt Lake will be the host in 2034, the future IOC host commission has not yet decided which will be the host in 2030. The French Alps currently hold pole position. The IOC delegation said during its visit that it will be easier to find suitable hosts for the Winter Games in the coming decades, and IOC President Thomas Bach. said last year that by 2040 there will be only 10 countries with an appropriate climate. The IOC had to decide on Beijing for the last Winter Games, in 2022, with many of the venues between 45 and 75 miles away.
“There is an opportunity to think more broadly now,” said Jacqueline Barrett, the IOC’s future head for the Olympic Games hosts, “to think about how transformative the Winter Olympics here in 2034 could be.”
Utah Olympic organizers used the phrase “ready, willing and able” as early as 2015. They were even prepared in case a bid fell through in recent years. Everything is in its place. And the reality is, from a Winter Games perspective, Utah may be 1 for 1.
Fraser Bullock, executive director of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee, has estimated that the cost of the 2034 Games will be approximately $2.4 billion and will not use taxpayer dollars but will be financed with private funds.
The IOC probably won’t find that anywhere else in the world, and the governing body has acknowledged that it is considering the scenario of a host rotation system in the future.
“I think that’s definitely where things are going,” Vonn said.
While Utah has all the strength and all the influence with the IOC right now, there are issues facing the state’s residents.
Stoss said he read climate reports from the SLC-Utah Committee that say it could host the Winter Games until 2050, but beyond that there’s a question, not just for Utah but for the world. The Great Salt Lake is shrinking due to climate change, experts say. It’s a potential ecological disaster if the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere continues to melt away. Despite consecutive harsh winters that helped raise water levels, the Utah legislature has spent approximately $1 billion on water conservation to help the lake.
“I think Salt Lake is the best Olympic option available to the world right now,” says Lindsey Vonn, the champion skier who now serves on the SLC-Utah Committee. (Tim De Waele/Getty Images)
On top of that, with winter storms becoming less frequent, the Wasatch Front — the cities, including Salt Lake City, that make up the growing expanse at the foot of the white-capped Wasatch Mountains — is prone to winter inversions that trap pollutants in a thick, dense fog that often hangs over the area. part of the offer Organizers’ plan for the Games includes targets to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent.
While taxpayer money is not currently expected to go toward paying for the cost of the 2034 Games, the continued growth Salt Lake City is experiencing is expected to bring more changes on the sports front. Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith recently purchased the rights to relocate the Arizona Coyotes for an estimated $1.2 billion. Utah’s legislature passed a billion-dollar taxpayer bill that Salt Lake Mayor Erin Mendenhall says will transform the downtown community and help host the NBA’s Utah Jazz and NHL team .
In a recent interview with The AthleticSmith said his decision to bring the NHL to Utah was the same as his home state wanting to bring the Olympics back for a second round.
“If you think about the Olympics and the way Salt Lake bid for the Olympics, it’s very similar,” he said. “They were interested. We are ready. And we are partners.”
Stoss and the IOC delegation will spend the next two months working on their report on Salt Lake City and will present it to the IOC executive board in mid-June. Stoss hopes they will then be given the green light to take it to the IOC session in July in Paris to finalize the worst-kept secret: that the Winter Games are destined for Utah once again. Bullock had his best poker face on as the visit concluded.
“We’re looking forward to July 24,” Bullock said.
(Top photo of American skier Picabo Street starting a downhill race at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City: Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images)
