MILAN — Gov. Spencer Cox joined leaders from Italy and France at the headquarters of the Lombardy region on Friday morning to launch a cooperation agreement linking the territories behind the 2026, 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games.
The project connects Milano Cortina 2026, the French Alps’ 2030 Games and Utah’s 2034 Games in what leaders described as the first time three Winter Olympic host regions have agreed to work together on planning, research and long-term legacy.
Rather than approaching each Games in isolation, the agreement is designed to allow host regions to share what is working and what is not as decisions are made on sustainability, infrastructure, public health and what remains after the Games are over.
For Utah, Cox said that collaboration means the work of shaping the 2034 Games is already underway, guided by lessons from regions facing those same challenges today.
Lombardy President Attilio Fontana said the 2026 Games were planned by reversing the traditional Olympic model. Instead of building new venues and addressing their future later, Lombardy focused on improving existing infrastructure that will remain in use long after the Games end.
No new facilities were built, Fontana said. The Olympic Village, privately owned, will transition into student housing. The former trade fair area will host concerts and large-scale events. Most public investment went into railways, roads and existing sports facilities, and were projects that their communities already needed, he said.
“The Olympic Games acted as an accelerator for works long overdue,” Fontana said, calling that the true legacy of the event.
Raffaele Cattaneo, Lombardy’s undersecretary for international relations, described the project as a bridge linking three Olympic cycles across two continents. He said the cooperation rests on the pillars of sustainability, inclusion and cooperation.
Planning decisions in Italy were made with environmental, social and economic impacts considered as a unit. Inclusion was reflected in the growing role of the Paralympic Games, with participation expected to increase by 20%, said Cattaneo.
“These Games will build lasting relationships. We truly are privileged partners in this relationship. I’m sure these can be broadened to other areas like academia, economy,” said Cattaneo. “We are convinced that when conflict is ravaging our world we are demonstrating, at a local level, that it is key to work together to build bridges and not put up walls. This is the spirit of our project.”
Jeanick Brisswalter, president of Université Côte d’Azur, described the Games as “laboratories for innovation,” where research can guide public decisions before, during and after competition.
Through cooperation with the University of Utah, researchers will focus on air quality at venues, athlete injury prevention, water management, emissions reduction and links among nutrition, immunity and environmental exposure. A shared data platform, he said, will support evidence-based policy decisions, with future work expanding into mental health, transportation, security and post-Olympic legacy.
Brisswalter said the goal is not just successful Games, but territories that become long-term examples of resilience and responsible hosting.
“We hope that as we work together the Italians, the French and the Americans, that we will make those thousands of decisions better than they’ve ever been made before. We want this Olympics to be the best Olympics in the history of the world,” said Cox. “The one that we’re at today should be the very greatest Olympics we’ve ever had. We pledge our our resources to help you make your Olympics successful.”
Cox emphasized that the university partnership is a central part of the broader cooperation agreement linking the three host regions.
“This was all about a cooperative agreement that we’ve been working on with three Olympic regions,” Cox said. “The three of us are really cooperating, not just on the Games and the way the Games will be played, but on the legacy and what will be left behind.”
Cox said it is the first time three Olympic host regions have worked together in this way, making it important not only for the Games themselves, but for relationships between Europe and U.S. states.
For Cox and the state of Utah, the partnership reinforces the idea that collaboration can continue regardless of political strain at the national level, where in proper Olympic tradition, the focus is commonality and friendship.
“Having that agreement basically cements that idea. So, should you feel tension, you will refer back to that. Let’s work together. Let’s see what we have in common and how we can learn from each other,” said Cox. “The best part is that intellectual humility that we had the greatest Olympics in the world in 2002 and we can still learn from people. We can still make ours better.”