Salt Lake City being preferred as a shoo-in to host the 2034 Winter Olympics was expected. The surprise was the IOC favouring the French Alps bid for the 2030 edition.
Aiming to finalise back-to-back Winter Games hosts next year, the International Olympic Committee executive board has decided to enter exclusive talks with Olympic officials in France and the United States for Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake was alone in the 2034 race to bring the games back to Utah, which hosted the 2002 Winter Games, and the American bid’s support from all levels of government up to President Joe Biden was praised Wednesday.
“He would guarantee all the expenses,” said IOC member Karl Stoss, who chaired the Olympics panel assessing potential candidates, adding “and they stand really in a strong, strong status behind these games.”
A French bid uniting the snowy Alps region and the French Riviera resort Nice came together only in the past few months to compete with Sweden and Switzerland for the IOC’s support.
The IOC also has now pointed the Swiss bid toward the 2038 Olympics with “privileged dialogue” status.
By mapping out a Winter Olympics future for almost two decades, the next opportunity for Asia to host looks to be in 2042 — perhaps in Sapporo, Japan or even Saudi Arabia, which is creating the Trojena ski resort to stage the 2029 Asian Winter Games.
The IOC last month aimed to make a double award picking the 2030 and 2034 hosts together in July when about 100 members meet in Paris on the eve of the Summer Games.
France’s partial win Wednesday is a full victory for its national Olympic committee leader David Lappartient, the president of cycling’s governing body.
Lappartient worked to build close ties with IOC president Thomas Bach even before last year when he became one of the about 100 IOC members.
It would be the fourth time France has hosted a Winter Olympics, after Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992.
The IOC’s modern approach leaves members to approve a single option presented by the executive board. The 2030 Winter Games decision is barely six years away, making it the latest hosting decision.
Sapporo and Vancouver withdrew, and Salt Lake City shifted focus to 2034. With few options in January, Sweden was approached for a ninth bid, but bids from France and Switzerland emerged.
The IOC faces declining options for Winter Games hosts due to climate change, considering a rotation policy for regular hosts like Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City, caught in a bribery scandal in 2002, aims for 2034.
