Brad Olch is the only person in Park City who can know what Mayor Nann Worel is experiencing this week.
Olch, a former three-term mayor, was in office in 1995 when the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2002 Winter Olympics to the state and traveled with the Utah delegation to Budapest, Hungary, for the vote. Worel is in Paris with the state delegation this week for the expected awarding of the 2034 Winter Olympics to Utah in the early morning hours, Utah time, on Wednesday.
“What a great opportunity for Nann, the mayor of Park City, to witness something like that,” Olch said Monday.
The circumstances are different, though. The IOC months ago named Salt Lake City the preferred option for the Games of 2034, and the awarding of the Games on Wednesday to the capital city is widely expected. In the previous era, there may have been frontrunners for the awarding of a Games, but the host would be a mystery until the vote was cast. Salt Lake City was competing against other places on the day of the vote, including Sion, Switzerland, before emerging as the winner.
“Anything was possible, but we felt really confident,” Olch said, describing the meetings in Budapest as “crazy exciting” since the outcome was not known.
The IOC bid process has changed dramatically since the Winter Olympics of 2002 were awarded. The Lausanne, Switzerland-based organization under the current process enters into wide-ranging talks with a potential host as the sides address numerous issues related to staging a Games. In the case of Salt Lake City, the IOC last November invited Salt Lake City into a phase known as a targeted dialogue. It has been likely since then that Salt Lake City would be selected as the host of the event in 2034.
Olch described the awarding of the Winter Olympics to the state as a “done deal” as the IOC gathered in Paris for meetings on the eve of the Summer Olympics in the French capital.
He is the Park City official most associated with the earlier Olympic era. He served three terms as the mayor starting in early 1990 and was heavily involved in the bid before becoming a pivotal figure during the years of City Hall planning for the Games. He did not seek reelection in the 2001 municipal campaign and left office in early 2002, just weeks before the Games. He had wide influence on the City Hall blueprints for the Winter Olympics. By the time he left office in January 2002, nearly all of the plan for the Games had been drafted and much of it had begun to be implemented.
Another key difference between the earlier Games era and today is the timing of the award. The IOC award of the Winter Olympics of 2034 is slated for nine and a half years prior to the event. The Games of 2002 were awarded less than seven years before they opened.
Olch said the additional time may become a challenge for the community. He predicted there will be “ebbs and flows” during the near decade of planning for the Games.
“That’s a long time to stay enthused,” he said.
He added, though, the extended period will allow Park City to “put its best foot forward.”
Olch suggested Park City officials travel to upcoming Olympics as part of the planning. Officials in the years before 2002 traveled extensively to a series of Olympics and other cities that previously hosted the Games.
Worel is in Paris for the IOC meetings and the opening days of the Games. Olch said City Hall should send representatives on a fact-finding mission to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy, to “really get a sense of what a Winter Olympics is about” as well as the 2030 Winter Olympics, which are slated to be awarded to the south of France. Olch said a municipal trip to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles would also be beneficial to the planning.
“We had to figure out what place was Park City going to be in all of this and how can I bring the community along even further,” Olch said.