Utah’s long journey to hosting another Winter Olympics

SALT LAKE CITY — Submitting a bid to host the Olympic Games is a huge process and it’s one that’s been going on here in Utah for more than 10 years.

Dozens of people have poured their time, talent, hearts and souls into this bid. 

Catherine Raney Norman has been chair of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games since 2021. A time when planning an international event seemed nearly impossible. 

“We had delays due to COVID. The postponement of the Tokyo Games,” she told KSL TV in a recent interview.

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Raney Norman was asked about the toughest part of putting the bid together. Her answer?

“Ensuring that our community stays excited and making sure that they continue to join us for this journey and they’re along with us for the entire time,” she said.

When the journey started

It was way back in 2012 when then Gov. Gary Herbert announced the state would start taking the first steps into researching the possibility of hosting another Winter Games.

“I think we sense an opportunity,” Herbert said during a press conference in February 2012, “And we need to pursue that, in fact, to see if it’s a real opportunity.”

The opportunity was there and now, 12 years later, Utah has been awarded the 2034 Olympic Games.

Salt Lake City is officially the place for the 2034 Winter Olympics

“I’m just grateful that our community continues to be excited about an Olympic and Paralympic Games and they’re so invested in it,” Raney Norman said. “We have 10 more years and so for us continuing to invest and stay involved in the community and making sure that they feel a place and purpose in this effort is going to be really important.”

A 2002 Olympian herself, Raney Norman knows the importance of sports in the lives of young people and she uses her experiences to drive the bid committee.

“I love bringing our youth athletes into this,” she said. “Me and Chris Waddell, we’ve done this, but it’s about the next generation.”

Raney Norman said involving young athletes in Utah’s Olympic bid the most satisfying part by far.

“I think it’s central to us,” she said. “You see it in our venues where kids and families participate in this. You see it in our focus around our bid effort. We talk a lot about family. We talk a lot about youth. And that is very much so in my mind part of Utah. It’s part of who we are as a culture. We’re a very family focused community and state and so for us, we’re trying to bring in, I think, pieces of our character that shine here in Utah into the bid effort and focusing on youth and families.”

Youth and youth sports were a key part of the vision for the 2002 Olympic legacy and in the years since the games were held in Utah, we’ve seen the fruits of that legacy go on to win gold, silver, bronze and achieve success all over the world.

“I always kind of phrase it as two ways,” Raney Norman said. “We have the pathway to the podium and we have the pathway to the people. So where any kid can come in and they can participate in sport and maybe that have that big dream to go to the Olympic or Paralympic Games and we’ve done really well in that space here in Utah but then we also are going to have a lot of kids who are going to become leaders in our community and they’re going to have learned values through sport that are going to help make them successful in life.”

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