Will there be snow in 2030?
Via KSL Com:
Utah is closer to getting another Olympics Friday after the U.S. Olympic Committee selected Salt Lake City to bid on behalf of the United States for a future Winter Games, potentially in 2030.
Salt Lake City, the host of the 2002 Winter Games, beat out Denver. Reno-Tahoe dropped out of the running recently in the competition. The decision was made by the USOC at a closed-door meeting in San Francisco.
It will be the International Olympic Committee that chooses the 2030 host city — but not until 2023. Other cities currently in the mix include Sapporo, Japan, and Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Even before the USOC’s decision was made public, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski could be heard cheering from behind closed doors at City Hall. The USOC notified both Salt Lake and Denver bidders by telephone.
“We are so grateful that Salt Lake City and this state of Utah were chosen,” the mayor said during a news conference at City Hall before toasting the win with flutes of red and white grape juice.
Gov. Gary Herbert said amid the celebration that it would be hard to overstate the impact of hosting in 2002, a “coming out party” that showed the world “the sophistication of Utah. We’re not just a country-bumpkin, little Western state.”
Now, the governor said, they’d be able to see all the changes being made since 2002, including the more than $3 billion rebuild of Salt Lake City International Airport, while experiencing the same strong sense of volunteerism from Utahns.
The USOC stopped short of committing to a 2030 bid.
Sarah Hirshland, the USOC’s new CEO, told reporters during a telephonic news conference after the board meeting that there is no “active process of bidding that will take place so in some regards, we have the luxury of time.”
The Colorado Springs-based organization did express enthusiasm for Salt Lake.
“We’re incredibly lucky to have multiple able and willing cities to choose from, but in the end, we believe Salt Lake City will give us the best chance to return the Winter Games to the U.S.,” USOC Chairman Larry Probst said in a statement.