It's actually been a pretty newsworthy few weeks for the Olympics, despite the fact that we aren't in an Olympic year and the Paris Games are still more than seven months away.
The IOC announced in the last few weeks that it had entered into targeted dialogue with a pair of locations to host the Winter Olympics in 2030 and 2034.
It had long been rumored and reported that Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Olympics back in 2002, was interested in hosting again. The idea of a bid is seemingly popular with people in Utah and the locations used for those games are still in great shape and could be used again. In fact, many of them are used by the United States teams to do training throughout the year.
The big question was whether or not Salt Lake City would be in the mix for 2030 or for 2034. The preference of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee was for the later date, as the 2030 Games would come less than two years after the US hosted the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. While it was possible to make it happen, for the sake of sponsorships and other logistics, the 2034 date was preferable for most people involved on the US end.
And the IOC announced that indeed, Salt Lake City would be targeted for the 2034 Winter Olympics, with the 2030 Winter Olympics targeted dialogue going to the French Alps. This one surprised me a little bit, because of all the stuff I had read had pointed toward Sweden, Switzerland and Japan being possibilities for the Winter Olympics.
The French Alps bid is interesting to me in a few ways and I was interested to read the feasibility assessment provided by the IOC. First and foremost, it will be a little like Sochi in that there will be events taking place in the relatively warmer climate of Nice. I was in Nice in January of 2002 and it wasn't terribly cold (also wasn't as warm as Sochi), so it's interesting, but much like Sochi, the indoor venues for ice hockey, curling, figure skating and short track will all be located in the coastal area, along with the Main Press Center and the International Broadcast Center. There are plans to build the two hockey rinks in Nice, while the other venues are existing. A venue for speed skating is still to be determined.
There will be three other venue clusters, Meribel-Bozel, Montgenevre-Briancon-Serre Chevalier and Le Grand-Bornand. Montgenevre-Briancon-Serre Chevalier will be home to Big Air, Slopestyle, Aerials, Moguls and Halfpipe, with snowboard and ski cross in a location to be determined in the cluster. Meribel-Bozel will be the home to sliding sports, ski jumping and alpine skiing and Le Grand-Bornand will be hosting biathlon and cross country skiing.
In Salt Lake, like in 2002, the IBC and MPC will be located downtown, along with venues for hockey, figure skating, short track and speed skating. Curling will return to a venue in Ogden, while Snowbasin Resort will host alpine skiing. Utah Olympic Park has the venue for sliding sports, snowboard and ski cross and ski jumping, Park City will host halfpipe and Slopestyle, Deer Valley Resort will host aerials and moguls and Soldier Hollow will host cross country and biathlon. There's also plans to again use a hockey rink in Provo as well. Salt Lake's feasibility study was also an interesting read.
While I can't expect that I will still be covering the Olympics in 2030 and 2034, it is pretty neat to see the next steps being taken toward Olympic sites. And Switzerland's bid was a non-edition-specific project, which the IOC liked and has decided to grant it a special status, 'privileged dialogue,' with an eye toward the 2038 Games.
Lots of development as we move closer to next summer's Games in Paris.
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The US Ski and Snowboard Team posted this on its website when it was announced that Salt Lake City was entering targeted dialogue for hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics. (USSA)
