‘It feels like home’: IOC Future Host Commission tours Utah ahead of 2034 Winter Olympics vote

Karl Stoss, chairman of the Future Host Commission and a member of the International Olympic Committee, speaks with reporters after the Future Host Commission toured the Rice-Eccles Stadium on April 10, 2024. The tour was part of a four-day visit to venues that would be used during a 2034 Winter Games hosted by Salt Lake City and Utah. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)

Members of the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission for the Winter Olympic Games — people from all across the world — were in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, gathered on the sixth floor of the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, where panoramic windows presented grand views of Utah’s capital city. 

The backdrop for the meeting: downtown Salt Lake City’s skyline, set against the snow capped Oquirrh Mountains gleaming in the distance to the southwest. Spanning north, the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island sat on the horizon, behind Utah’s Capitol. 

It was a fitting location to showcase the beating heart of Utah and welcome members of the IOC’s Future Host Commission to Salt Lake City. It also kicked off a four-day schedule for the commission’s delegation to tour a slate of existing 2002 Olympic venues in Salt Lake City, Park City, Soldier Hollow, Snowbasin and Kearns that could be used again for a 2034 Winter Games. 

State and local officials sought to put Utah’s best foot forward during the visit, meant to show that Utah is ready and eager to host the world again for another Winter Games. After their tour, the Future Host Commission is slated to submit a report to IOC leaders, who will then decide whether to send the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games’ bid for a final vote. 

Utah officials and members of the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission for the Olympic Winter Games meet together at the Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on April 10, 2024 (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)

Is Utah going to host another Olympics?

Salt Lake City has already been selected as a 2034 preferred host, and with no serious contenders, the city is close to formally locking down the Games. A final decision by the full IOC is expected to be announced on July 24, Utah’s Pioneer Day, in Paris, ahead of the start of the 2024 Summer Games. 

Though the commission’s members would not go so far to say the Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 Olympic bid was guaranteed to succeed, they had only positive things to say about its chances. 

“We have a very good feeling,” Austrian IOC member Karl Stoss, who is also chairman of the Future Host Commission, told reporters. He said now the commission will take a “deep dive” as it analyzes the Salt Lake City-Utah bid, but he said city and state officials are on a “very, very good” track. 

Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, said “we are hopeful and somewhat confident that we will be awarded the games” on July 24. Pressed on his confidence level, Bullock laughed, raised his hand above his head and said, “I’d put it up here.” 

Utah’s vision for the 2034 Winter Games

In the kickoff meeting that was open to reporters, Bullock, along with other dignitaries including Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, presented the city and state’s vision for a 2034 Winter Games to the Future Host Commission’s delegation. 

They made the word “elevate” — hearkening to Utah’s slogan “Life Elevated’ — a centerpiece, promising to “elevate” communities, sport and the Games experience. They also promised to put families on the forefront by launching an “athlete family initiative” that would provide athletes and their families access to ticketing, transportation and other accommodations.

They also promised “unity” to be a prominent theme, even amid today’s divisive political environment. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall made a point to note that she, a Democratic mayor, and Utah’s Republican state leaders stand shoulder to shoulder on a 2034 Olympic bid, and they want to share Utah’s “secret sauce” on the international stage. 

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson talks with Karl Stoss, member of the International Olympic Committee and chairman of the Future Host Commission, during a meeting kicking off the commission’s visit to Salt Lake City on April 10, 2024. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)

“(We) all stand united in complete unity about the Olympic movement, because it’s who we are,” she said. “It has nothing to do — and actually supersedes — politics.” 

Mendenhall said Salt Lake City and Utah are ready to “set an example for this nation, and I believe for the world. You feel it when you’re here, and I hope you’re feeling it from us. But you will see it in our people as you visit this week. It’s alive and well.” 

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was initially expected to attend Wednesday’s event, but he was unable to be there due to a family emergency, his office said. Shortly after Wednesday morning’s kickoff, Cox’s office issued a news release announcing Cox’s wife, first lady Abby Cox, had undergone spinal surgery to remove degenerative discs in her neck after “weeks of debilitating pain.” 

In a social media post, Cox said he and the first lady “feel terrible that we’ve had to miss some important events,” but he expressed gratitude for support for his family, as well as the University of Utah Hospital’s medical staff. 

Henderson took Cox’s place during Wednesday’s event, giving an emotional speech about what a 2034 Winter Games would mean to Utahns. She said she’s never been to an Olympic event in person, but she remembered hosting a watch party at her home for the 2002 Opening Ceremonies. She said one of her friends who came to the party was nine months pregnant, and while they were watching her water broke and she went into labor. 

“She had her own little Olympics baby that day,” Henderson said. The lieutenant governor also said her oldest daughter, who had started figure skating right before the 2002 Olympics, was inspired to learn to land an axel.

Members of the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission for the Olympic Winter Games tours the Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on April 10, 2024 (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)

Henderson said the Olympics “is as much a part of who we are as anything else in this state,” describing the 2002 Winter Games’ lasting impact on Utah’s transportation infrastructure and growth. She said hosting another Olympics would “pass that legacy down to future generations, and inspire the next group of kids.” 

“This is who we are,” she said. “There is nowhere else better prepared for the Olympic games than Utah. And there is nowhere else that wants them more than we do.” 

Christophe Dubi, Olympic Games executive director, said “it feels good” for Olympic officials to be back in Salt Lake City. 

“It feels like home,” he said. 

Future Host Commission members tour venues

Karl Stoss, chairman of the Future Host Commission and a member of the International Olympic Committee, speaks with reporters after the Future Host Commission toured the Rice-Eccles Stadium on April 10, 2024. The tour was part of a four-day visit to venues that would be used during a 2034 Winter Games hosted by Salt Lake City and Utah. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)

Utah’s existing infrastructure and Olympic venues, which commission members will tour this week — Rice-Eccles Stadium, Utah Transit Authority’s TRAX line, Utah Olympic Park, Park City Mountain Resort, Snowbasin, Soldier Hollow, and the Olympic Oval in Kearns — is perhaps one of the state’s biggest selling points to host another Olympics, Bullock said. 

“That’s a very important point to the Olympic movement today,” Bullock said. “With a goal of sustainability, they don’t want to see new venues built. We’ve got them all in place. And the nice thing is, they’re so much better than they were in 2002. So we’re excited to show that because none of them have seen them in person before.” 

After Wednesday morning’s kickoff meeting, members of the Future Host Commission met behind closed doors with Utah officials to talk about the 2034 bid in private. Later Wednesday afternoon, the commission’s delegation toured Rice-Eccles Stadium. 

To conclude their tour, they walked onto the stadium’s field and posed for a group photo in front of reporters. 

Asked whether any changes would need to be made to the stadium to make it Olympics ready, a smiling Stoss told reporters, “it is perfect.” 

To that, Bullock laughed victoriously and raised his fist.

“There we go,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Utah officials and members of the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission for the Olympic Winter Games poses for a photo during a tour of the Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on April 10, 2024 (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)

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