A delegation from the International Olympic Committee is scheduled to visit the Park City area next week as part of an important trip to Utah in the months before the full IOC is expected to award the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City.
The Future Host Commission of the IOC holds an influential role in the selection of cities for upcoming Games and the trip is slated during a busy time for the Lausanne, Switzerland-based organization and the committee in Utah that is seeking the Games. The IOC is preparing for the likely awarding of the 2034 event to Salt Lake City during meetings this summer just before the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris.
The delegation’s itinerary includes time in the Park City area on Thursday.
The IOC representatives are scheduled to tour the Utah Olympic Park — including the sliding track and a stop at the top of the ski jumps. Summit County officials and the president of the Utah Senate, Stuart Adams, will meet with the delegation at the park.
A stop at the National Ability Center’s McGrath Mountain Center at Park City Mountain will provide the delegation a view of the terrain proposed for some of the Olympic competitions. The IOC representatives are expected to briefly visit Main Street on a vehicle tour before heading to Deer Valley Resort. Mayor Nann Worel is one of the officials who is slated to attend a lunch with the delegation at Deer Valley. A visit to the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Wasatch County is also on the itinerary.
“The Park City and Summit County region is a vital host venue community as it will hold events in multiple different sports across three different sites. The Utah Olympic Park is a great example for the IOC of the sustainable use of an Olympic venue over time to energize sport. We are also appreciative of the opportunity to partner with two world-class ski resorts — Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort. The region is also reflective of the benefit sport can bring to communities, with thriving youth winter sport programs,” Fraser Bullock, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, said in a prepared statement.
Karl Stoss, the IOC member who chairs the Future Host Commission, is leading the delegation and Christophe Dubi, who is the Olympic Games executive director for the IOC, is also scheduled to travel to Utah. United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee leadership is expected to travel to Utah as well.
There are a number of stops also planned throughout the Olympic region, including Rice-Eccles Stadium, the TRAX light rail system in Salt Lake City, Snowbasin and the Utah Olympic Oval.
The visit will follow five months after the IOC named Salt Lake City the preferred host of the Games of 2034 and in the period after the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games submitted thousands of pages of documentation to the IOC covering the details of the plans to host an Olympics.
The Park City area is crucial to the overall concept for a second Games in the state. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley and the Utah Olympic Park are identified competition venues while the community would play a key role in security, transportation and celebration planning.