It was just more than a year ago, on July 24, 2024, when the International Olympic Committee, on the eve of the Summer Olympics in Paris, awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City.
Park City will be a key to the Games, with two competition venues — Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort — inside the city limits and a third — the Utah Olympic Park — just outside the municipal boundaries.
It had been widely expected the IOC would name Salt Lake City as the 2034 host long before the actual vote by the membership of the Lausanne, Switzerland-based group. The Park City government, with much at stake in the community with a second Games, had been involved in the bidding throughout the effort and celebrated the award alongside others with a role.
The IOC named the host of 2034 nearly a decade prior to the start of the event, giving the region more time to prepare than the seven years that were customary under the selection process during the 2002 Winter Olympic era.
In the time since the award, however, there has only been modest gains at City Hall in its Games-related work. Leaders, undoubtedly, understand the preparations for the Games will ultimately become one of the overriding issues at the Marsac Building even if the first full year of the community’s second Winter Olympic era has passed with only fitful progress.
The issue became more pronounced recently with the topic of Winter Olympic planning entering the Park City Council campaign. The Games were expected to be of note to the politicking this year with the election being the first since the awarding of the event, and there had been repeated mentions of the Winter Olympics, primarily in general terms, during the early weeks of the campaign.
The City Council field spoke about the Games efforts during the KPCW/Park Record candidate forum last week with the Aug. 12 primary election fast approaching. Several challengers were blunt in their assessment of the work to date, describing the city as having fallen behind.
The actual record involves progress in some aspects of the Games efforts and a lack of significant movement in others. They include:
• Progress made with Park City representation on the Winter Olympic organizing committee: The Park City area’s importance to the Games efforts was established years before the event was awarded, with the state’s bid committee including people with links to the area and relationships between that committee and the community appearing to have been solid. The organizing committee that eventually succeeded the group that successfully bid for the Games involves a corps of people from the Park City area as well. Mayor Nann Worel, crucially, received a seat on a steering committee that is under the umbrella of the wider organizing committee. She was also tapped as the vice chair of the Host Communities Committee under the auspices of the organizing committee. The organizing committee seat will move to her successor when the next mayor is sworn into office in early January. A Park City mayoral presence on the organizing committee, alongside the other figures from the area, is seen as a step toward ensuring that the interests of the Park City community are represented.
• A lack of progress in the formation of a mayoral committee to address the Games efforts: Mayor Nann Worel in late March, during the State of the City address, announced plans to seat a committee that would be tasked with considering the early steps that City Hall may take as it starts readying the municipal role in 2034. The mayor during the remarks did not provide details about the potential committee membership, but it appeared the group would involve former community leaders, including those who held a role in the 2002 Winter Olympic era. The precise deliverables that will be expected from a committee were also not clear at the time of the announcement. A committee has not been seated in the four months since the State of the City remarks. City Hall has said the timeline to form a committee was delayed amid changeover in staffing at the Marsac Building. Worel will leave office in five months. The work of such a committee, though, would not necessarily hinge on her presence in the mayor’s office.
• Progress made during Mayor Nann Worel’s trip to the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024: Worel traveled to Paris for the awarding of the Games of 2034 and for fact-finding purposes during part of the Summer Olympics. It was the first of what is expected to be a series of official trips to Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics that are slated prior to 2034. Even though Worel is not seeking reelection and will retire from office in early January, her travels in France were important at several levels. She observed at least some of the operations of a Games, including transportation. Worel later noted what she saw as a lack of clear communications related to transportation as well as the road closures. The mayor’s experience can help inform the early City Hall discussions about 2034.
• A lack of progress in the tapping of a consultant to assist with the Games plans: In the weeks after the Winter Olympics were awarded in 2024, there was interest in continuing the momentum. Park City, Summit County and the Park City Chamber/Bureau — each expected to be heavily involved in the Games planning — launched a search for a consultant to craft a decade-long blueprint for the Winter Olympic effort. Although the interest in a consultant did not exclusively involve City Hall, the municipal government was a party to the search. The work of a consultant had initially been expected to be completed by mid-January. The three institutions did not proceed with the procurement. The Chamber/Bureau in June said the effort was delayed indefinitely, indicating there is enough time before the Games to make the progress that will eventually be needed.