If the Winter Olympics were held right now in Utah, that would be problematic — thanks to the snow drought. Even recent high-elevation snowfall hasn’t made much of a difference. Snow fell at 7,000 feet in northern Utah. Below that, it rained.
The base elevations of Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Ski Resort and Snowbasin Resort (all future Olympic sites) are all below where the latest snowfall fell.
It’s hard to predict what conditions will be like in eight years when the Utah 2034 games come back to town, but challenges will likely persist. A 2020 study from Utah’s Division of Water Resources found that as the climate warms, less precipitation will fall as snow, and more snow could melt during the winter.
When asked about it in Milan during the 2026 Winter Games, Fraser Bullock, the Utah 2034 executive director and president, said the state’s cold nights in January and February offer reliability.
“So, regardless of the amount of precipitation we’re getting, we can make snow,” he said. “We will also store snow to have available from the previous year.”
Using thermal blankets to cover snow preserves about 70% of the stored supply from one winter to the next. It’s those kinds of climate change challenges, though, that have the International Olympic Committee considering a permanent stable slate of rotating hosts for the Winter Games. Utah is thought of as a solid contender
In a story by Deseret News reporter Lisa Riley-Roche, newly elected IOC Executive Board member Jae Youl Kim of South Korea said, “Salt Lake City could be a great model” in a world of rotating winter hosts.
Riley-Roche said the idea of locking in permanent rotating hosts has been on the table for a while, but new IOC President Kristy Coventry has also called for a sweeping review of policies in the Olympic host selection process.
It could be a hybrid set of permanent hosts that are judged to be climate-ready and climate-reliable into the future, she said.
“Not only can larger entities put in a state bid, but you can have multiple city bids, like we're seeing in Milan and Cortina. You can also have multi-region bids and even multinational bids. The intent is to help create more sustainability.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Pamela McCall: Why is Utah called an ideal candidate for the permanent rotating system, given that, right now, snowpack is about 68% of normal?
Lisa Riley-Roche: Climate studies commissioned by the IOC show places like Snowbasin, which was specifically studied, is climate reliable well into the future. So, between the climate reliability and the ability to store snow for use at other venues into the future, that creates an opportunity for those venues to be ready to go, even if we have a year like this where we're not seeing a lot of snow in Utah.
PM: What did IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi tell you about a natural rotation that may already be happening?
LR: There are people that say there really doesn't need to be a set of permanent hosts named, because the reality is, there are only so many parts of the world that can host. We know who's hosted before and who could host again. So Utah is obviously at the top of that list. The French Alps could work too, and parts of Japan. But many other countries are probably off the table for the Winter Games. So he's saying that creates, in essence, a natural rotation.
PM: What about moving the Winter Olympics to a more snow-friendly month?
LR: It gets more difficult for most places to guarantee temperatures, again, cold enough to keep snow on the ground, or to make snow. One option for dealing with that, besides rotating the games, is simply moving them up. Because, remember, the Olympics are followed by the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, and those go well into March. As we all know, March can be a pretty dicey month for snow. So, having the games start in January rather than February is a possibility. There's a lot on the table there, but certainly, there's a lot of enthusiasm among Utah's Gov. Spencer Cox and others associated with the Olympics for becoming a permanent host. So we’ll see.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
