Salt Lake City will be an Olympics host again after the International Olympic Committee formally awarded Utah the 2034 Winter Games on Wednesday.
"Utah loves the games and what they mean to the world," Fraser Bullock, the president and CEO of Utah's Olympic bid told the IOC. "It has been our dream to be here, back in front of you almost every day since we submitted our final report for the 2002 Games and today, finally, we're back."
The Beehive State was the only candidate since the IOC gave Salt Lake City exclusive negotiating rights last year in a fast-tracked process for 2034 that led to the U.S. being awarded the games. Climate change and high operational costs have shrunk the list of cities willing and able to welcome the Winter Games. Utah has capitalized on the low interest, pitching itself to Olympic officials as an enthusiastic repeat host if the committee goes forward with a proposed permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities.

The team presenting the state's bid on stage to IOC members in Paris included Bullock, Gov. Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Alpine ski great Lindsey Vonn. Back home in Washington Square, a 3 a.m. public watch party gathered to see a broadcast of the announcement.
"I am so excited," exclaimed Salt Laker Cally Quiel, who was wearing a 2002 Olympics hat and volunteer's vest she bought on eBay. "I was 11 years old when this came through in 2002 and I can not wait for my kids to be the same age I was when this happens again."
Though confidence was high there was a complication.
What was set to be a simple coronation of Salt Lake City became tangled up by the IOC. President Thomas Bach is angry that the FBI is investigating the World Anti-Doping Agency's decision to accept China's explanations for positive drug tests of 23 swimmers before the Tokyo Olympics.
Before the vote, Cox agreed to pledges demanded by IOC leaders. The Olympic officials inserted a clause in the host city contract that said local officials must work with current and future U.S. presidents and members of Congress to assuage concerns about the federal investigations into doping. The IOC also got promises from U.S. Olympic officials and the Utah contingent to accept a new clause that lets the Olympic body terminate Salt Lake City’s deal if the authority of WADA was undermined.
“We will work with our members of Congress," Cox said, "we will use all the levers of power open to us to resolve these concerns.”

It was an unprecedented move by the IOC that seemed to send a message the FBI should back away from the Chinese swimmers' case. It can be investigated in the U.S. under federal legislation named for a whistleblower of Russian state doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
The grilling of Utah's bid delegation surprised Leslie Morton of Salt Lake City. She thought the proceedings were going to be "a lot less discussion and a little bit more of just getting to the point and awarding it."
Even so, the final approval came in an 83-6 vote by IOC members. It brings back the Winter Games 32 years after Salt Lake City first hosted in 2002.
The results of the election are out!
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) July 24, 2024
Results of the vote of the 142nd IOC Session on the host of the XXVIIth Olympic Winter Games: #SLCUT2034 pic.twitter.com/6x7l0xUXzW
The 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games are part of Olympics lore for the bid bribery scandal that emerged in 1998 of IOC members seeking and getting favors from campaign officials. It led to sweeping anti-corruption reforms at the IOC.
Utah now has a decade to prepare to host. That’s three more years than it had to stage them the last time.
"The Games are a perfect fit for our future," Mendenhall told the IOC. "Hosting the Games aligns seamlessly with the fabric of our communities. Accelerates our ambitions for sustainability and proudly represents our shared Olympic and Paralympic values. Our project has a lot to offer, but maybe the most important is the least tangible, and that is the power of optimism and partnership."

The plan outlined in Paris is for one of the most compact layouts in Olympic history. All of the venues are within a one-hour drive of the athletes village on The University of Utah campus. Another part of the pitch is an affordable price tag. No new permanent construction is needed with all 13 venues ready to go and each having played a role when the city hosted the last time. Everything is in place, Bullock noted.
"If we learned anything from hosting in 2002 it is that hosting the Games is a privilege," he said. "It's one that will resonate for years in our communities and if we do it right, it can also bring joy and solidarity around the world."
Read more from NPR: Olympic officials try to crush U.S. probes of China doping, threaten Salt Lake Games
Graham Dunbar and Hannah Schoenbaum of the Associated Press and KUER's Elaine Clark, Pamela McCall and Jim Hill contributed to this report