The Park City area is expected to be a key element of an April visit to the state by a delegation from the International Olympic Committee as the Lausanne, Switzerland-based organization prepares for the likely selection of Salt Lake City as the host of the Winter Olympics in 2034.
The Future Host Commission of the IOC, which holds an influential role in the selection process of Olympic cities, is scheduled to travel to Utah from April 10 until April 13 for a wide-ranging look at the concept for a second Games in Salt Lake City and the surrounding region.
The IOC provided broad information about the upcoming visit during a Monday roundtable with the media. It is unclear what further details may be released as the visit nears, but the IOC said there would be some sort of opportunity for public input while the delegation is in Utah.
Information released by the IOC on Monday indicated the visit would stop at a series of mountain venues in addition to those in the Salt Lake Valley.
The mountain venues include locations for the potential ski racing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding events. The information, though, did not specify the precise locations of the venues. The concept map has long located many of those events at either Park City Mountain or Deer Valley Resort. Snowbasin, outside of Ogden, has been envisioned as another of the mountain venues and as the location for ski racing.
The information, meanwhile, indicates stops will be made to learn about the events that are expected to be held at the Utah Olympic Park in the Snyderville Basin and Soldier Hollow in Wasatch County. The visit will also make stops at the venues planned in the Salt Lake Valley.
It was not clear early in the week whether the delegation from the IOC intends to meet or hold discussions with Park City or Summit County officials in April. Both of the local governments are involved in the talks with the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, which is the organization that is seeking the event, and both jurisdictions would have important roles in the planning for and staging of a Games. They would be expected to be involved in the designs for traffic, transportation, security and celebrations, as examples.
The visit is scheduled during a crucial stretch for the efforts to stage the Games of 2034 in the state. The delegation will arrive in the weeks after the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games submitted upward of 5,000 pages of documentation to the IOC covering the details of the plan to host a Games. The visit is also slated just months before the IOC is expected to select the host cities for the Winter Olympics of 2030 and 2034 during meetings in Paris shortly before the opening of the Summer Olympics in the French capital in July. The IOC in November tapped Salt Lake City as the likely host in 2034.
Materials presented by the IOC on Monday indicate some of the topics that will be studied during the April visit include the plan for the venues, the support for a Games in the area, the impact a Games would have as well as issues related to a Games legacy and sustainability. The IOC wants to learn of the support from a range of interested parties, including on the local, state and federal government levels, the private sector, the public and sports movements.
“We can’t wait to be back in Salt Lake,” Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s Olympic Games executive director, said during the roundtable on Monday, describing the Winter Olympic of 2002 in Utah as having been a great experience and noting the venues that already exist in the state that would be used in a second Games.
He also described that the state has “done it before” and would not be “first-timers.” Dubi touched on concerns about the potential impacts of climate change on the Winter Olympics, saying the Games region in Utah is projected to be “climate reliable” for years.
Jacqueline Barrett, the IOC’s director of Future Olympic Games Hosts, said opportunities for public input during the April visit have not been finalized. The delegation wants to be “as open as we possibly can be,” she said.