More than a dozen International Olympic Committee members are scheduled to visit Utah next week in preparation for the expected 2034 announcement.
(Chris Samuels | Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Mitt Romney (left) and Fraser Bullock during a visit to the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns on Friday, May 27, 2022. Romney and Bullock spoke about Utah's 2034 bid at an event Friday. , April 5, 2023.
A 14-member team from the International Olympic Committee will travel to Utah next week for a three-day tour as one of the final milestones ahead of the expected announcement in July of the 2034 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. Tour the tournament venue.
“They're going to see the beauty of Utah and make sure everyone's OK,” Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Convention Committee, said Friday. .
Block said the IOC team will collect information from the visit and prepare a report to the IOC Executive Board for its June meeting, which will be presented before the membership. We will proceed to award the awards that we expect.” [of the Games] Pioneer's Day is July 24th. ”
“We asked for it [day]And they agreed because there's a big party going on and they're going to blow it up even bigger,” Block said. He said if the vote is positive, the bidding committee will sign the hosting agreement on the spot, “and the games will be ours.”
Block and past Olympic leaders were part of a panel discussion about the impact of the 2002 Olympics and preparations for hosting them again in 2034.
Visits and votes are largely a formality. Last October, the IOC revealed that Salt Lake was the only city in the running to host the 2034 Olympics, and in November Salt Lake was officially named a preferred host city for the Olympics.
Even though the opening ceremony was 10 years away, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the man in charge of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, said preparations for such a major event must already be underway. Stated.
“Some people come up to me and say those Olympics must have been like the Super Bowl. And I laugh and say it's like Super Bowl 50.” he said. “The Super Bowl is easy. There's no comparison. What goes on at the Olympics is a massive undertaking.”
Mr. Romney said organizers must address locking down federal funding for roads, transportation and the extensive security network. This would likely require billions of dollars from Congress, and Mr. Romney said it would be better to get that money hundreds of millions of dollars at a time rather than all at once.
Former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt echoed Romney's call to start now, adding that state leaders also need to set goals for what they get out of hosting the Olympics.
“Instead of planning the Olympics as a 17-day activity, let's plan it. …Think of the Olympics as the start of a 10-year effort and be clear about what you want the Olympics to produce,” Levitt said. The 200 technology leaders invited to the event promoted the country's development. technology industry.
“Many of them came here and realized, 'This is a different place than we thought,'” he says. “And you can look at specific companies that have created jobs that have thousands of employees in the state today, because you can see what will be needed in the future.
