Salt Lake’s second chance: Awarded 2034 Olympic Games after stained 2002

David Wallechinsky:

“Salt Lake City is going to get the Winter Olympics again. But in a more honest way.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Call it a second chance.

Thomas Bach:
“The International Olympic Committee has the honor to announce that the 27th Winter Olympic Games 2034 are awarded to Salt Lake City Utah.” (hold sound for a bit of applause/crowd shot, can carry over into track)

Simone Del Rosario:

Two days before the Opening Ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games, the IOC confirmed what has been speculated for months.

The Winter Olympics will return to Salt Lake City 32 years after it last hosted, when a bribery scandal rocked the Olympic world.

Bribing IOC members to win Olympic bids was a poorly-kept secret for Olympic insiders. But there wasn’t a lot of public proof until Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Games bid.

David Wallechinsky:

“The Salt Lake City people realize that you you had to keep a file on each IOC voting member. And then, you know, do whatever you could to get their vote. And so there was one case in particular, caught my attention, where there was an IOC member from Togo. Well, Togo doesn’t compete in the Winter Olympics. That didn’t matter, because the guy still voted. So they kept flying him out to Salt Lake City. Well, that wasn’t good enough. So they had to include the stopover in Paris so his wife could go shopping on the bid committee’s pocketbook. It’s just the whole thing was so ridiculous. But they got the games, and that was all they cared about.”

Simone Del Rosario:

The scandal threatened the Games and the sanctity of the Olympics. Several IOC members were fired and Salt Lake City host committee leaders faced charges. Decades later, the city and the IOC have toiled their way into good graces.

After decades of bid-rigging scandals, the IOC changed the drawn-out bidding process that historically lent itself to corruption.

Now, two IOC panels are permanently open to talks with any cities open to hosting. And these panels can also make the first move and approach cities they think might be the right fit.

When the IOC got two compelling bids for this year’s Games from Paris and Los Angeles, they awarded Paris and said, LA, you can get the next Summer Games.

Same thing happened with the Winter Games. The IOC liked both the French Alps and Salt Lake City and awarded them for 2030 and 2034.

The SLC got the Games cleanly this time around but it still comes with strings.

The IOC put a clause in the contract pressuring Utah officials, including Gov. Spencer Cox, to lobby against a federal investigation into doping by Chinese swimmers at the Tokyo Games.

Some Chinese athletes had tested positive for a banned heart drug called TMZ at a meet months before the Tokyo Games. The World Anti-Doping Agency allowed the swimmers to compete after China’s Anti-Doping Agency blamed the “extremely low” concentration of the drug on contaminated food. China’s swimming team won three gold medals that year. By the way, the same swimmers in question will be competing in Paris.

While the U.S. has opened its own investigation, IOC President Thomas Bach contends the World Anti-Doping Agency should be the only body to investigate Olympic doping cases. Here’s Utah Governor Cox addressing his part in all of this now that Salt Lake City has the Games.

Gov. Spencer Cox:

“We’ll work very closely with the Department of Justice, we’ll work with the Senate, we’ll work with the Biden administration and whatever the next administration is so that we can get a comfort level in what we’re going to do to work together. Because the United States cannot clean up sport by itself. That’s impossible. And conversely, WADA can’t clean up sport by itself without countries that are willing to participate and work together.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Strings aside, the citizens of Salt Lake City are ecstatic for the games returning to Utah, gathering in the wee hours of the morning to hear the announcement.

Person 1:

“The world gets to see Salt Lake on the global stage, again, I mean, this place really is the best community in the United States and the whole world will get to experience it. And I’m stoked for that”.

Simone Del Rosario:

If you’re hungry for Olympic content, you’ll love this piece we did on the history of

{if we can do one of those things where we show the story in app stuff. }

Olympic corruption and what goes into a successful Olympic bid. Search for it on the Straight Arrow News app.