The International Olympic Committee selected Salt Lake City, Utah to host the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games during the 142nd IOC session in Paris on Wednesday.
Former Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn spoke at the session as part of the seven-member Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 bid committee presentation team that traveled to France.
“This feels like a full circle moment for me, remembering the magic of my first Olympics here in 2002,” she stated in a U.S. Ski and Snowboard press release.
The Alpine skier joined Utah governor Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and bid committee president Fraser Bullock, who was the chief operating officer of the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City. Vonn spoke about her role as the bid committee’s Chair of Athlete Experience. She said what matters most to athletes is being able to share pivotal moments with family members.
“I’ve experienced this firsthand,” the 39-year-old stated. “One of my biggest worries was trying to make sure family members could get to see me compete.”
“I know that I’m not unique, and this challenge at the time of an athletes’ great achievement is far more common than anyone would imagine,” the four-time Olympian continued. “When Fraser (Bullock, president of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games) asked me what I could do as Chair of Athlete Experience, my immediate response was ‘to take care of athletes’ families.'”
Vonn has helped spearhead what will be the first-ever athlete family village at an Olympics. She said on Wednesday that athletes’ families traveling to Utah for the Games will be provided access to tickets, accommodations and transportation “at a fair cost.”
“Our communities are ready to welcome these athlete families — to interpret for them and assist them in every possible way,” Vonn said. “Families matter — in every culture — and in Utah, that is especially true.
Governor Cox said more than 80% of Utahns and 100% of elected leaders supported the Olympic bid.
“The Olympics and Paralympics represent so much more than competition. At its core, the Olympic Movement is about building community and celebrating excellence, things we do really well in Utah,” he stated in the IOC release.
Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall added: “Salt Lake City and the Olympic and Paralympic Movement are deeply connected through values — our commitment to diversity, love for our youth and the tireless work to preserve our environment. These principles are shared through the lens of sport.”
The 2034 Olympic Games are scheduled to use 13 existing venues from the 2002 Games alongside one temporary venue, according to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Press release. Skiing and snowboarding events are expected to be hosted at Deer Valley Resort, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, Park City Mountain, Snowbasin Resort, the Utah Olympic Park and a temporary structure for freeski and snowboard big air in downtown Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City receives 2034 Winter Olympics — but with a few strings attached
The IOC vote ended up being 83 ‘yes’ and six ‘no’ with six abstentions, but only after a contingent of Utah politicians and U.S. Olympic leaders signed a clause demanding local organizers —including governor Cox — push to shut down an FBI investigation into a suspected doping cover-up.
“That was the only way that we could guarantee that we would get the Games,” Cox told the Associated Press. If the U.S. does not respect the “supreme authority of (World Anti-Doping Agency),” the governor said, “they can withdraw the Games from us.”
Voting was delayed about an hour longer than scheduled at Wednesday’s session as multiple IOC members blasted the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in a show of support for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). WADA has recently received criticism from American lawmakers and athletes in the wake of the news that China is sending 11 swimmers embroiled in a doping scandal to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
NBC reported those athletes tested positive for a banned heart drug trimetazidine in 2021. WADA privately cleared the swimmers of wrongdoing and allowed them to compete at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, where two went on to win gold medals.
WADA accepted Chinese explanations for the failed tests — that the swimmers accidentally ate food contaminated with the substance. But U.S. officials are currently investigating the decision under an anti-conspiracy law passed after the Russian doping scandal at the Sochi Winter Games.
Bach’s insistence to ensure WADA is the lead authority on doping cases led to the clause to Salt Lake’s host contract, Graham Dunbar of the Associated Press wrote.
“Even in the world of Olympic diplomacy, it was a stunning power move to force government officials to publicly agree to do the IOC’s lobbying,” Dunbar stated.
“We will work with our members of Congress,” Cox told Bach and IOC voters ahead of the 2034 vote. “We will use all the levers of power open to us to resolve these concerns.”
Travis Tygart, the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency — who is best known for exposing Lance Armstrong’s doping operation — said in a statement it was “shocking to see the IOC itself stooping to threats in an apparent effort to silence those seeking answers to what are now known as facts.”
WADA launched an independent review into the handling of the case, albeit only after the story was leaked to The New York Times, NBC reported. Witold Bańka, president of World Anti Doping Agency, addressed the independent review during the session. He said it was done “because of the serious allegations that were being leveled against us of cover up and bias towards China — again, mainly in the United States.”
On July 9, the independent review delivered an interim report.
“His conclusions could not be any clearer: that WADA did not show any bias, undue interference or other impropriety in its assessment of the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency’s decision not to bring forward anti-doping rule violations,” Bańka stated. “And that WADA’s decision not to appeal the cases in the Court of Arbitration for Sport was indisputably reasonable, based on the evidence.”
