Utah’s ‘Olympic blossoming’ since 2002 Winter Games on display for IOC

Amid the pageantry that opened the 2002 Winter Games at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles stadium, a top International Olympic Committee official told an audience of Utah community leaders Thursday there was a moment that helped set the tone for what was to come.

“It’s pretty impressive, you know,” the IOC’s Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi said of the Opening Ceremonies, watched by nearly 2 billion people worldwide. “Generally, the speeches are very dignified. And here comes Mitt Romney and he says, ‘Is this a party, or what?’ I said, ‘Wow, this is the United States. This is different.’”

Dubi, part of the IOC delegation in Utah through Saturday to visit the venues proposed for a 2034 Winter Games, said a lot has changed in the decades since he witnessed now U.S. Sen. Romney’s exuberance as the leader of the Utah Games.

Speaking at an invitation-only forum held in the lobby of the Eccles Theater that overlooks Main Street, Dubi said Salt Lake City has experienced an “Olympic blossoming. This city has really transformed, probably thanks to many things, but the Games being one of them. There’s no doubt about that.”

Thanks to more people living in the city center, downtown streets are no longer “lonely,” as Dubi said they used to be on Sundays. And, he said, “everything we’ve heard from everyone” suggests there’s even more confidence among Utahns about being able to show the world a good time during an Olympics.

Austrian IOC member Karl Stoss, chairman of the Switzerland-based organization’s Future Host Commission evaluating Utah’s readiness to host again, said was “very impressed” with the new venues that would be located downtown. Those include a massive temporary ski and snowboard jump for big air events recently added to the Winter Games.

“I saw your innovation,” Stoss said. “You could not bring the mountains to the city.”

Four-time Olympian Catherine Raney Norman, chair of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games that’s behind the bid, said planning is underway for what she called “Project 29,” a way to bring Olympic sports opportunities to children in all of the state’s 29 counties.

“We have 10 years to impact these kids,” she said, noting some could end up competing in another Utah Olympics.

Salt Lake City is the IOC’s preferred host for the 2034 Winter Games, but the final decision is still months away. IOC leaders are scheduled to review the findings of the Future Host Commission in June and decide then whether there should be a formal vote by the full membership on July 24, Utah’s Pioneer Day.

The delegation, which includes the IOC members and others serving on the commission as well as executives and staff, spent their second full day in the state viewing venues. At the Utah Olympic Park’s sliding track near Park City, they were told after recent upgrades, the only project remaining is installing a new shading and lighting system.

Brittney Arndt, who retired last year at age 25 from the USA luge team, told the IOC officials that being introduced to the sport through an afterschool program at the park changed her life.

“I feel so lucky to have been in a place where the Olympics happened,” Arndt said.

At the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center near Midway, Emily Campbell, 17, labeled a “rising star of U.S. biathlon” by the IOC, talked about competing at this year’s Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea, in the sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.

Campbell, a Park City High School senior, stepped aside from the shooting range to give an IOC member from Slovakia a chance to try the sport. Danka Barteková, a skeet shooter who won a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Games in London, was quickly hitting targets despite good-natured taunts of “no pressure” from the delegation.

Barteková thanked the center’s assistant coach, Curtis Lupo, for his assistance. “A pleasure,” she said, before asking for a photo with Campbell and the other young athletes there to train.

Other stops for the delegation Thursday included Park City Mountain Resort, where the resort’s vice president and CEO Deidra Walsh said she first heard of Park City while watching the 2002 Winter Games on TV. “I kind of have to pinch myself,” she said, standing in a room with a view of the snowboard half pipe used for competition in 2002.

“We are thrilled to welcome back the Olympic spirit,” Walsh said.

Friday, both the Snowbasin ski resort in Huntsville and the Utah Olympic Oval speedskating track in Kearns are on the IOC delegation’s public agenda. Their trip is set to wrap up Saturday with a news conference.

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