The host for the 2034 Winter Olympic Games was on Wednesday confirmed after a vote of the International Olympic Committee. After the voting, USA's Salt Lake City has been awarded the Winter Games for the second time. The US city hosted the Games in 2002 and will now host the 27th edition of the Quadrennial event.
Salt Lake was the lone contender that the Olympic Committee was considering for the 20234 Games. It received a total of 83 votes out of 89 at the IOC session and was named the preferred choice last month in June.
Due to Climate change and high operational costs, the number of interested cities to host the Winter Games has gone down. The US state of Utah has benefitted from this thing and pitched to the Olympic officials to host the Games again if it wanted to go with the proposed permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities. Due to this, Christophe Dubi, the Olympic Games Executive Director, had said that Salt Lake City would be a prime candidate for such a plan.
A watch party was planned to celebrate the announcement at 3 AM local time of America. The day July 24 also marks an important day in the history for the city as this was the date the Mormon pioneers discovered the Salt Lake Valley in northern Utah. During their last presentation to the Olympic committee Wednesday morning, the bid team was expected to outline the plan for a compact layout in Olympic history. The venues for the Winter Games shall be within a one-hour drive away of the athletes' village on the University of Utah campus.
The organizers touted the enthusiasm throughout the selection process and showed visiting Olympic officials about how they have kept the venues which were used 22 years ago in 2002. The plan needs no new permanent construction. All 13 venues are already in place and each played its own role when the city first hosted the Winter Games in 2002.
