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The U.S. Olympic Committee To Announce Their Selection To Represent America By End Of This Year

The U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to announce their choice of city to represent America for the 2030 Winter Olympics by the end of the year. Melissa Allison has more:

Reno-Tahoe and Denver are up for consideration along with Salt Lake City to represent the U.S. in the bid for the 2030 Olympics.

Ski Utah Director Nathan Rafferty said Utah is the obvious choice.

“There is no destination in the world better suited to host an Olympics and Olympic Winter Games than Salt Lake City and certainly the Park City are,” Rafferty said. “Its going to be up to the IOC when and where that happens but I feel really confident that we’re going to see an Olympics back here in Utah, sooner than later.”

Park City Mayor Andy Beerman couldn’t agree more.

“We made the investment 20-plus years ago in major infrastructure to host the games and we kept that infrastructure up and relevant,” Beerman said. “And actually, in a lot of ways, we’ve improved things like our transportation system and highways to move people around. So, as far as the ski jumps, the bobsled tracks, our resorts where we would be able to host them, their all very capable and would need some small upgrades. But, we’re talking probably tens of millions of dollars as opposed to hundreds of millions which any other venue would have to invest in.”

A statewide poll last November reported 89 percent of Utahns want to bring the Olympics back.
But some Parkites are leary of hosting another Olympic event, worried that it will spark another growth spurt.

Beerman said he gets it, but he doesn’t agree.

“I just want to point out that we’re kind of grown out at this point,” Beerman said. “I think the Olympics would actually have the opposite effect and they would act as an accelerant on all of our critical priorities. It would require us to accelerate our timeline for affordable housing, for transportation solutions, for our energy solutions we’re working on and continue to push that we need to showcase our social equity. So, I see it as something that can be a force for good in the community, not something that’s going to be a hassle or a burden on the community.”

Beerman along with Environmental Sustainability Manager Luke Cartin worked on the 146-page report submitted in February which recommended Utah make a bid to bring the Olympics back.

The USOC is expected to make their choice of city known before 2018 rings out.

I’m Melissa Allison, KPCW News.