There were few counterparts across the globe for Brad Olch to turn to for advice in the 1990s as Park City prepared to have an important role in the Winter Olympics that would be held in the state in 2002.
Olch, the mayor of Park City for 12 years ending weeks before the start of the Games in 2002, was an instrumental figure in the municipal preparations and served on the organizing committee that put on the Olympics that year.
Olch on Monday recalled that one person who offered guidance in the early stages of the preparations for the Games in 2002 was a Frenchman.
Michel Ziegler, who died recently, was the mayor of Park City’s sister city of Courchevel, France. The mountain resort city in the Alps was an important venue during the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
“He had great vision and a great love of the mountains. A great passion for all of the people in Courchevel,” Olch said.
The mayoral terms of Olch and Ziegler partially overlapped, and Olch said the two leaders learned from one another. He said Ziegler was in office in Courchevel when the sister-city relationship began. The two places were a “perfect fit” as sister cities, he said.
“He was looking for a sister city for Courchevel. He looked at all the Colorado resorts, and talked to them, and then he visited Park City,” Olch said.
The Winter Olympic connection between the two places remains notable, with both Park City and Courchevel having a Games history and each place preparing for another one. Courchevel is on the 2030 Winter Olympic map as a competition venue, while Park City is a key to the plans for the Games of 2034.
The Winter Olympics of 1992 were staged at a time when the Games boosters in Utah were bidding for a subsequent event. Park City, with Olch as the mayor, by the winter of 1992, was involved in the Salt Lake City bid. Olch said he traveled to Courchevel for the Games of 1992 as the guest of Ziegler.
“It was an opportunity for them to elevate their game” and bring attention to the community, Olch said, likening the experience of Courchevel to that of Park City during the Games of 2002.
Olch said he learned from the Courchevel experience during the Winter Olympics about the importance of cooperation between “all the different factions” as a Games is planned. The issues included transportation and ensuring the residents were not overlooked during the Games, he said.
“They had the same challenges in a lot of ways,” Olch said as he spoke about the Winter Olympics in Courchevel in 1992 and in Park City a decade later.
Olch hosted Ziegler during the Games of 2002, which were held weeks after he retired as the mayor of Park City.
He also described Ziegler as a key figure in the development of the airport in Courchevel.
The sister-city relationship between Park City and Courchevel remains intact. A group of Courchevel students was, by happenstance, in Park City in 2024 at the time of the announcement of the locations of the Winter Olympics in 2030 and 2034.