Short Turns: Salt Lake's Olympic Future

The IOC’s new selection process gives Utah a step up for more curtain calls.

In July 2024, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City. It now appears that Utah will join a select group of regions, all with permanent Olympic facilities, that will rotate hosting the Winter Games in perpetuity.

Photo top: The Utah Olympic Oval is an indoor speed-skating oval located 14 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The Oval was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics and is expected to reprise that role for the 2034 Games. Above: The 2034 Olympic logo sparked immediate backlash, with criticism that the logo is difficult to read, along with complaints that Salt Lake City was replaced with Utah in the branding. Officials say the logo may be updated later. Photo courtesy Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation

The IOC acknowledges that climate change will sharply limit the number of cities able to provide snow cover in
decades to come and that governments now balk at the 10-figure costs of hosting the Olympics. The solution may be to award the Winter Games only to cities or regions with facilities already in place from previous Olympics and with more-or-less–reliable winter conditions.

Two years ago, for the first time, the IOC simultaneously awarded hosts for the next two Winter Games: the French Alps in 2030, followed by Utah four years later. If the IOC does begin to rotate the Winter Games among a small group of host cities, Salt Lake City becomes a prime candidate for future bids.

During a press conference in Milan a few days before the 2026 Winter Games, IOC president Kirsty Coventry said that a rotation scheme “is definitely something we will work at.” She emphasized that any changes to the selection process “can’t just be for the next couple of years. We really have to look far down into the future.”

There’s little debate that the IOC’s traditional bid process is outdated, especially for the Winter Games, with its reliance on snow and cold temperatures. Numbers back that up. Seven cities initially expressed interest in hosting the recent 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, but after voluntary withdrawals, in 2019 the process came down to only two candidates: Milan-Cortina and Stockholm-Åre. In acknowledgment of a changing process, the 2026 Games were the first to be awarded to dual hosts, which helped distribute the costs between Cortina and Milan.

In 2019 the IOC also began to transition away from its traditional competitive bidding process to a new direct-bid format, which was approved by the 134th IOC Session that year. The new format strives for a more collaborative process: The IOC identifies a potential host city, requests that a bid be submitted and works as a partner in the process.

To reduce costs for the hosts, the direct-bid process focuses on cities that have previously hosted Games. That focus seems to be working. A reported 85 percent of the venues for the 2026 Winter Games were already in place or were temporary facilities, greatly reducing the stress of solving the longstanding problem of how to use Olympic venues after the three-week event has left town.

In Milan, an IOC executive board member singled out Utah as a “great model” for a new rotating-host format. Aiding Utah’s case is that after the 2002 Winter Games, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee established the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation with a $72 million endowment for maintaining and operating the local Olympic venues.

It’s worked. Venues built for 2002 continue to see regular use and upgrades. Barring any significant problems, Snowbasin will host all Alpine racing; Deer Valley will host moguls and aerials; Park City will get halfpipe and slopestyle; Utah Olympic Park will host ski jumping; Soldier Hollow Nordic Center will host cross-country and biathlon; and big-air competitions will be held near downtown Salt Lake City (perhaps in a new baseball stadium).

Beyond skiing, the Olympic Oval has hosted World Cup and world championship speed-skating events. The Utah Olympic Park in Park City is in rotation for World Cup and world championship luge, bobsled and skeleton events. Since 2002, more than 90 World Cup and world championship events have been held in the state, according to the Utah Sports Commission.

Using a small pool of locations to host mega-athletic events is not a new system. Until 2018, the National Football League (NFL) had an open bidding process for its Super Bowl. Then it transitioned to a direct-selection model, in which the league identifies a city that meets its requirements and requests a bid be submitted. Miami, New Orleans and Los Angeles alone have hosted 50 percent of all Super Bowls. The NFL has a similar, but opposite, weather dilemma as the one faced by the IOC for Winter Games. It primarily selects warm-weather cities to host its annual extravaganza, almost always avoiding the winter chill for the February classic.

With its reliable snowfall, easy access to an international airport and modern Olympic venues already in place, there’s a good chance that Salt Lake City will be the first venue ever to host the Winter Games three times—and, perhaps, beyond.