IOC announces Salt Lake City as host of 2034 Winter Olympic Games

Salt Lake City was formally awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, following a vote on Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Paris, giving Utah its second Games after previously hosting for the first time in 2002.

About 1,000 sports fans gathered in downtown Salt Lake City at 3 a.m. local time – 11 a.m. in Paris – to watch the long-anticipated announcement on a livestream. Some dressed in ski gear despite the summer heat, while others donned Team USA merchandise and waved flags bearing images of the Olympic Rings.

The crowd erupted in cheers as Olympic officials made their final decision to return to a city where they said the local enthusiasm was palpable, even two decades after it first hosted the Games.

Utah's state capital was the only candidate for 2034 after the IOC gave Salt Lake City exclusive negotiating rights last year. Climate change and high operational costs have reduced the number of cities willing and able to stage the Winter Games.

Utah quickly capitalized on the low interest elsewhere, pitching itself to Olympic officials as an eager repeat host if the IOC eventually adopts a permanent rotation of cities for winter editions of the world's biggest multi-sport showcase. Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said Salt Lake City would be a prime candidate for such a plan.

Local leaders had their sights set on hosting multiple times even before Salt Lake City welcomed its first Games, bid team spokesperson Tom Kelly said. Remnants of the 2002 Games are visible throughout the city and have kept the Olympic fever alive.

The organizers of the 2034 Games touted that enduring enthusiasm throughout the selection process and showed visiting Olympic officials how they have preserved nearly all of the venues used in 2002.

"Enthusiasm for the Games was always our feeling, on the first minute to the last minute, in every interaction we had, both at the venues and in our meetings with athletes, sports leaders, politicians and the private sector," Karl Stoss, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's Future Host Commission, told the full committee Wednesday morning in Paris.

Darrell Robinson of Herriman, Utah, celebrated with his family in the early hours Wednesday after his daughter, who was too young to remember Utah's first Olympics, asked him to join her at the Salt Lake City watch party. Robinson also was present when it was announced that the city would host the 2002 Games, and said it was amazing to relive that moment.