PARIS — Boasting a borrowed Team USA shirt, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox stood alongside the U.S. ambassador to France during a news conference Tuesday in an ornately decorated room in the historic Hotel de Talleyrand.
“A lot of us just got here. We’re none the worse for wear. We haven’t had a chance to shower or change. We don’t have our luggage yet,” Cox told reporters.
A last-minute clothing swap with another member of the 2034 Winter Games bid team, said the governor, showed “the generosity of Utahns, everywhere we go, giving us the shirts off our back.”
And with that initial appearance completed in Paris, Cox and the Utah contingent are now poised to participate in the bid committee’s presentation to the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday morning before a final vote to award the 2034 Games.
The presentation will be livestreamed on Deseret.com and at a “Celebrate 2034″ party being held in downtown Salt Lake City’s Washington Square, where campers have staked their spots along State Street in anticipation of the announcement and of the annual Pioneer Day parade, which gets underway at 9 a.m. MDT.
It marks a momentous moment. Cox, Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall and other members of the Utah delegation spent Tuesday night at the embassy for a reception with U.S. Ambassador to France Denise Campbell Bauer.
But prior to that, the governor reminded the room filled with Utah news media, as well as community, business and sport leaders “that this isn’t the Utah Games. It’s not the Salt Lake City Games. It’s the USA Games, that we, 1% of the United States of America, 1% of the population, we get to represent the entire United States to the world as we’re bidding for these Olympics.”
Cox, who as the past head of the National Governors Association promoted a “Disagree Better” initiative, said hosting another Olympics in Utah would be an opportunity to promote unity because “it allows us to act together” even when competing. That’s something, he said, “we know and understand better in Utah than I think anywhere else in the world.”
Overlooking venues that will host Olympic 3x3 basketball and skateboarding events in coming days, the reception was held in the George C. Marshall Center of the historic building, the European headquarters from 1948 to 1951 of the “Marshall Plan.”
Fraser Bullock, the bid committee’s president and CEO, noted the U.S. sponsored Marshall Plan — which helped rehabilitate Europe after World War II — was also signed in the Hotel de Tallyrand and said, “that’s what our bid is about, trying to make the world better.”
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall spoke of the “great legacy” of the 2002 Winter Games that left facilities like the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns that continue to be used by recreational as well as elite athletes, along with the first TRAX light rail lines. “It’s a legacy we live every day,” the mayor said.
Back in 2002, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said the state needed to host the big event because the “economy was not that great, just OK.” Twenty-two years later, Schultz said Utah is in a position to do “something to bring people together.” But Schultz also said the Olympics can be a catalyst to deal with growth-related challenges.
“(Senate President Stuart) Adams and I like to build things. We’re builders,” Schultz said, predicting there would be record spending on infrastructure projects ahead of a 2034 Games “that will help us get ahead.” But the speaker also said for him, “the best part of this story” is being able to say “not one dime of taxpayer money is going to be spent to host the Olympics.”
The proposed $2.83 billion budget for staging another Games a decade from now would come entirely from private sources, largely the sale of sponsorships, broadcast rights and tickets. But state and local leaders are already looking at what projects could be completed over the next decade, such as double-tracking the Frontrunner commuter rail.
The U.S. ambassador to France told reporters the turnout at the event “really shows the energy” behind the bid. She said the U.S. has been the site of more Olympics than any other country — a total of 10, counting the 2028 Summer Games and the hoped-for 2034 Winter Games.
If the IOC membership votes to award the 2034 Winter Games to Utah Wednesday morning, Bauer had a simple message for Utahns: “Congratulations! And you can do it. It’s going to be great.”
Cox suggested a second Olympics and Paralympics for athletes with disabilities may not be enough.
“One of the reasons we wanted to bring this back,” the governor said is “to prove to the Olympic movement that you could do this, that you could keep venues, that you could keep them active, that you could do it in a sustainable way that is good for the people, good for the taxpayers, good for the environment,” he said.
Cox again endorsed rotating future Winter Games among a set group of hosts, something the IOC has said may need to be considered as global warming limits the number of possible locations. A decision may be a long ways off, however, since the IOC has potential hosts lined up through 2038.
Besides Utah’s bid for 2034, the IOC is set to consider France’s French Alps bid for the 2030 Winter Games and is in exclusive talks with Switzerland to host in 2038, under the new, less formal bid process.
“We would love to see the IOC decide on kind of rotation, where every 20 years, or 16 years, or something like that, those same venues get those Winter Games back,” the governor said. “I think Utah is well positioned to represent North America as the premier venue for winter sport.”
First though, Utah has to get the 2034 Winter Games. On Tuesday night, the governor and other members of the bid team assembled in the massive main hall of the Palais des Congres de Paris for a rehearsal of their half-hour on stage, which will include several videos.
They were advised on how to make their way across the brightly lit stage and greet IOC President Thomas Bach before stepping up to a podium, one by one, to address the nearly 100 IOC members in the audience. The French Alps bid delegation will be seated to the far left of the stage and the Salt Lake City-Utah bid, at far right.
The presentation will be livestreamed on Deseret.com and at a “Celebrate 2034″ party being held in downtown Salt Lake City’s Washington Square.
