Why the signing of the host contract for the 2034 Winter Games was a little different this time around

PARIS — Utah’s contract to host the 2034 Winter Games didn’t get signed in a public ceremony Wednesday.

The document was actually electronically signed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox days earlier, after new language was added to require that the IOC-created World Anti Doping Agency be seen as the final authority amid a controversy over doping. The U.S. government is investigating allegations that Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete in 2021 despite testing positive for a banned substance.

Cox told the Deseret News he agreed to the document pending the IOC’s final vote Wednesday, calling it “the only way that we could guarantee that we could get the Games.”

He said the new language says that “if the United States does not support or violates the World Anti Doping (Agency’s) rules that they can withdraw the Games from us and from the United States.”

Although the contract is already legally binding, the governor was expected to participate in a private ceremonial signing Wednesday night. It was planned during a small celebration of another Games coming to Utah held at USA House, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s gathering place for Team USA’s supporters, especially big-money donors.

Before the doping issue surfaced earlier this month, the contract was expected to be signed on the same stage that IOC President Thomas Bach announced that Utah would host the 2034 Winter Games. Even following Wednesday’s vote, there was conflicting information about what was happening.

The host contract obligates the state to cover any shortfalls, just as it did for the 2002 Winter Games .

The privately funded event is expected to cost $2.83 billion to stage, using money raised largely from the sale of sponsorships, broadcast rights and tickets. That’s the same way Utah’s last Games were funded, and those left behind a $100 million surplus.

With so much already at stake with the host contract, the last-minute addition of a reason it could be terminated was surprising to some of the international press.

At a news conference held by the bid committee, Cox said in response he was “saddened at the politicization of everything that we see. ... It seems like everyone is looking for an excuse to be angry.”