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Winter Olympics Sequel? One Committee Member Hopes So

There are many positives and very few negatives to a possible Winter Olympic bid for the 2026 games.At least that’s according to speed skating gold medalist Derek Parra, the sports director at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns.

“With our existing venues, we’re billions of dollars ahead of any other organization that would want to bid for a games," he says. 

Parra is also on the just-announced Salt Lake exploratory committee for another bid. He says a 2012 poll of Utahns showed 73 percent want to host the games here again.

“You know our mass transportation is better than it was back then," he says. "I mean the city has developed so much and grown so much since then, so I think that’s all pluses for us.”

Parra says the group will look hard at costs and other possible challenges, but says he’s very excited about the possibilities.

The committee plans to have a decision by February of next year.

Coming events at the Utah Olympic Oval:

World Cup Long Track Event December 8-10

Short Track Olympic Trials December 15-17

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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