‘We could host the Olympics in 6 months,’ Utah governor says ahead of 2034 Winter Games decision

Gov. Spencer Cox sounded extremely confident in Utah’s ability to host another Olympics just days before he’ll help make a final pitch to host the 2034 Winter Games to members of the International Olympic Committee on July 24 in Paris.

“The good news is that unlike 2002 , we could host the Olympics in six months if we had to,” the governor declared Friday during his monthly news conference on PBS Utah.

“We have the venues. The venues are ready to go. We have the people. We have the leadership. We have the volunteers. We have the transportation systems. We have the village. Everything we need to host the Olympics is here right now,” he said.

Cox will be part of a half-hour presentation to the IOC about the bid, along with Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, Olympian Lindsey Vonn, Paralympian Dani Aravich, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Chair Gene Sykes, and the top leaders of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, president and CEO Fraser Bullock and chair Catherine Raney Norman .

The IOC is expected to vote afterward on whether the 2034 Winter Games should be held in Utah. If Utah gets another Games, the governor will sign the host contract that makes taxpayers responsible for covering any shortfalls from the privately funded event with a total price tag of $4 billion.

A transformed downtown and more transportation options by 2034?

The governor said Friday that Utah’s readiness to host after holding the 2002 Winter Games would allow for a focus on other projects over the next decade.

“It’s less about concerns about what we have to do to get ready for the Olympics and more about what we want to do to get ready for the Olympics,” Cox said. “What do we want the state to look like 10 years from now? What things have we been kind of dreaming about or thinking about? Now, we have a goal out there. We have something that we can look forward to.”

Topping his list is Salt Lake City’s downtown revitalization , to accommodate Utah’s new National Hockey League team at the Delta Center while turning surrounding streets into a sports, entertainment, culture and convention district.

“I believe the transformation of downtown Salt Lake City is the biggest thing we could be working on right now,” he said, adding that most of the plan “has nothing to do with hockey but with something that should have been done a long time ago that we’re all very hopeful can be done now.”

Transportation is also a priority, he said.

“Those kind of east-west corridors are not as strong as the north-south corridors,” the governor said. “We want to make sure we’re expanding transit wherever we can and maybe hastening some of those transit projects that make sense.”

More trails “getting people from one city to another” whether they’re on foot or on a bike is on his list, too. Cox said giving Utahns “an opportunity to transit in new and different ways, making sure we have safe paths for them, I think, is going to be very foundational to what we’re doing.”

What’s the federal government’s role in another Utah Olympics?

Utah is waiting for the IOC to award the 2034 Winter Games to Utah before seeking federal help with the transportation projects the state hopes to have completed in the next 10 years, the governor said.

“That will come after. We have not had those conversations yet with the federal government,” he said. “I always like to remind people, it’s not just Utah winning the Olympics. It’s the United States of America winning the Olympics. We get to represent this country to the rest of the world.”

Historically, Cox said, the federal government has played a role in getting a U.S. city prepped to welcome the world. Before Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Games, Utah was able to expand I-15 along the Wasatch Front and build the initial TRAX light rail lines.