Salt Lake City and the state of Utah have been named as the preferred host for the 2034 Winter Olympics, moving the state one step closer to bringing back the prestigious sporting event.
What is a preferred host? And what does it mean for Olympic prospects for the state?
A preferred host is as concrete as things can be at this moment in time, the Olympic committee has chosen Salt Lake to be the host city for the 2034 Winter Olympic Games. If the paper work goes smoothly, and the funding is there, then things will be formally put into motion at the Paris games next year.
Like an Olympic engagement ring?
Utah has been a frontrunner for the Winter Games for a long time, as the snow is obviously stellar, but another big upside is that Utah has managed to maintain and update the Olympic Facilities they built back when they originally hosted the games in 2002.
Many notable Utahn’s including Governor Spencer Cox and Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith expressed their excitement via X/Twitter.
This is a stark contrast to places like Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and Athens, Greece, who both let their multi-million dollar Olympic facilities fall into disrepair mere months after the games left their respective cities. Utah has remained a destination for Olympic Trials ever since 2002, with competition, training, and nearly 60 world cup events taking place at almost every venue built.
The 2002 Olympics, led by the newly hired president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, Mitt Romney, was able to overcome controversy to host some of the most iconic moments in Olympic history, including the Southern Hemispheres first ever gold medal in the Winter games, when Steven Bradburry won gold in the Men’s 1000m competition in short track speedskating, winning due to all of his opponents slipping on the final turn of the race.
Those Olympics were able to usher in a boom for the tourism economy in Utah, with skiing and snowboarding tourism in particular seeing a major jump, and with this recent massive news from the Olympic Committee, hopefully Utah can reap the same benefits when the games come back in 2034.
