Soon to be a 2-time Olympic host city, Salt Lake City’s zest for the Games is now an outlier
Many other past Olympic hosts around the world have decided in recent years that bringing back the Games isn’t worth the money or hassle
SALT LAKE CITY — Reminders of the 2002 Winter Olympics are nestled in every nook and cranny of Utah's capital city, from a towering Olympic cauldron that overlooks the Salt Lake Valley to an Olympic emblem stamped on manhole covers downtown.
As visitors leave the airport, they are greeted with a can't-miss Olympic arch amid snow-capped mountains in a message essential to Salt Lake City's bid to host the Games again: You are entering an Olympic city.
Unlike so many other past hosts that have decided bringing back the Games isn't worth the time, money or hassle, Salt Lake City remains one of the few places where Olympic fever still burns strong.
That enduring enthusiasm will be on full display Wednesday when members of the International Olympic Committee descend on northern Utah for their final site visits ahead of a formal announcement expected this July to name Salt Lake City the host for 2034.
In the more than two decades since Salt Lake City first opened its nearby slopes to the world’s top winter athletes, the pool of potential hosts has shrunk dramatically. The sporting spectacular is a notorious money pit, and climate change has curtailed the number of sites capable of hosting future winter competitions.
Meanwhile, Utah has spent millions to ensure its Olympic facilities didn’t fall into disrepair while also working to ensure residents preserve fuzzy feelings about the Games themselves.
Even though Salt Lake City got caught in a bribery scandal that nearly derailed the 2002 Winter Olympics, it has worked its way back into the good graces of an Olympic committee increasingly
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