Vancouver drops out of contention for 2030 Olympics, now down to Salt Lake City vs. Sapporo
Oct 28, 2022, 11:58 AM | Updated: 2:47 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City’s chances of hosting the 2030 Winter Olympics just got better.
Vancouver, Canada, dropped out of contention Thursday morning, leaving only Salt Lake and Sapporo, Japan, as the two host candidates for 2030.
Vancouver had to end its bid after the province it’s in, British Columbia, announced it won’t back the bid because of costs.
Vancouver last hosted the Olympics in 2010, as did Salt Lake in 2002, and Sapporo in 1972.
Fraser Bullock, the CEO of the Salt Lake City Committee to bring the Games back to Utah, says he’s excited about the news, but he also understands Vancouver had an excellent bid and it’s tough to see all that work result in having to drop out.
“We applaud them. They tried so hard and did so many things and it is hard to pull together to put on a Games,” said Bullock. “It takes so much work to put a bid together. Thousands of pages and contracts, vision, documents, they have this massive questionnaire that you have to fill out and we’re making great progress on that. But we still have a lot of work to do.”
Pulling people together for a future Olympics is not a problem in Salt Lake City.
An August poll showed nearly 80% of Utahns support bringing the Games back.
Public support is much lower in Japan at about 50%.
Salt Lake organizers say Utah is ready whenever they get the nod from the International Olympic Committee.
“I love the Games, but the games are something special. They bring unity to our community, and they help the world come together in a unique way like nothing else does,” said Bullock.
A final decision on who hosts the 2030 Winter Olympics isn’t expected until the IOC meets in October of 2023.
“Utah is the best place in the world to host the games in my opinion,” Bullock said. “We have the best people, the volunteers, they’re all welcoming, we have all the venues. We have compact geography. We’ve got all the pieces.”
