Leaders from Utah’s 2034 Olympic host venues and government officials are participating in the International Olympic Committee’s observer program. It’s an opportunity for future Olympic host cities to get exclusive insights into hosting the Games.
Locally, attendees include Park City leaders like Councilmember Tana Toly, Mayor Ryan Dickey and Acting City Manager Jodi Emery as well as the venue leaders from the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort.
Utah 2034 Games spokesperson Tom Kelly is also participating and said each attendee learns more about their area of expertise.
“We had Jay Fox, the executive director of [the Utah Transit Authority], along with his counterpart, Carlos, from UTA here, and they were looking at transportation networks,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Thursday. “So they're looking to see, how do the buses work, how do the trains work, and so forth.”
Along with public transit, leaders looked at the road network in Italy. Kelly said Utah has much better transportation modes to its Olympic venues as they are connected by highways. Italy, on the other hand, only has two-lane roads connecting mountain venues.
Because Kelly works with media, he attended an observer session to learn about how media outlets report on the Games. He said the process has changed a lot since Utah last hosted in 2002.
“Technology has really changed how the media reports on the Games. Not as many of them are using the main Press Center as they used to,” he said. “Part of that too is the fact that they're also spread out across the venues, but you can very definitely start to spot trends.”
Another benefit to the observer program is all future Olympic hosts are in attendance. That means ambassadors for Utah 2034 can get ideas and learn from Los Angeles 2028, French Alps 2030 and Brisbane 2032 Olympic leaders.
“We're part of the Olympic family,” Kelly said. “All of these host venue communities are part of that family, and for them to be able to get with others, to share ideas, but also to share camaraderie, is really beneficial.”
Kelly said Utah is still ahead of the normal host venue timeline. Hosts are typically awarded the Games seven years before hosting, but the Beehive State got approval almost 10 years in advance.
