PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — In his first visit back to Utah since awarding Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee president sought to ease worries that the city could lose its second Olympics if organizers don’t fulfill an agreement to play peacemaker between anti-doping authorities.

Thomas Bach on Saturday downplayed the gravity of a termination clause the IOC inserted into Salt Lake City’s host contract in July that threatens to pull the 2034 Games if the U.S. government does not respect “the supreme authority” of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Olympic officials also extracted assurances from Utah politicians and U.S. Olympic leaders that they would urge the federal government to back down from an investigation into a suspected doping coverup.

Utah bid leaders, already in Paris for the signing ceremony, hastily agreed to the IOC’s conditions to avoid delaying the much anticipated announcement.

Bach characterized the contract language Saturday as a demonstration of the IOC’s confidence that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will fall in line with WADA. He implied that WADA, not the Olympic committee, would be responsible in the unlikely occasion that Salt Lake City loses the Winter Games.

“This clause is the advice to our friends in Salt Lake that a third party could make a decision which could have an impact on our partnership,” Bach said.

Tensions have grown between WADA and its American counterpart as the U.S. government has given itself greater authority to crack down on doping schemes at international events that involve American athletes. U.S. officials have used that power to investigate WADA itself after the global regulator declined to penalize nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

With its contract curveball, the IOC attempted to use its little leverage to ensure that WADA would be the lead authority on doping cases in Olympic sports when the U.S. hosts in 2028 and 2034.

Salt Lake City’s eagerness to become a repeat host — and part of a possible permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities — is a lifeline for the IOC as climate change and high operational costs have reduced the number of cities willing and able to welcome the Winter Games. The Utah capital was the only candidate for 2034 after Olympic officials gave it exclusive negotiating rights last year.

Utah bid leaders should have the upper hand, so why did they agree to the IOC’s demands?

Gene Sykes, chairman of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said he doesn’t view the late change to the host contract as a strong-arm tactic, but rather a “reasonable accommodation” that secured the bid for Utah and brought him to the table as a mediator between agencies.

He expects the end result will be a stronger anti-doping system for all.

“It would have been incredibly disturbing if the Games had not been awarded at that time,” Sykes told The Associated Press. “There were 150 people in the Utah delegation who’d traveled to Paris for the single purpose of being there when the Games were awarded. So this allowed that to happen in a way that we still feel very confident does not put Utah at any real risk of losing the Games.”

“The IOC absolutely does not want to lose Utah in 2034,” he added.

Sykes is involved in an effort to help reduce tensions between WADA and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, while making sure the U.S. stands firm in its commitment to the world anti-doping system that WADA administers.

The White House’s own director of national drug control policy, Rahul Gupta, sits on WADA’s executive committee, but the global agency this month has tried to bar Gupta from meetings about the Chinese swimmers case.

For Fraser Bullock, the president and CEO of Salt Lake City’s bid committee, any friction between regulators and government officials has not been felt on a local level. His decades-long friendship with Bach and other visiting Olympic leaders was on full display Saturday as he toured them around the Utah Olympic Park in Park City.

“There’s no tension — just excitement about the future of the Games and the wonderful venues and people of Utah,” Bullock told the AP. “We are 100%.”

For International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, there’s little doubt he meant it when he said the best part about coming back to Utah was seeing the young athletes training at the state’s 2002 Winter Games facilities, many with hopes of competing here where the Olympics and Paralympics return in 2034.

During his two-day visit that ended Saturday, the leader of the Switzerland-based IOC made sure he had plenty of opportunities.

At the Utah Olympic Park near Park City on a hot Saturday afternoon, Bach marched up a steep, pebble-covered hillside to the massive 80-foot-by-180-foot inflatable airbag used by snowboarders to practice their big air moves in the summer, ignoring plans to briefly view it from a balcony.

Those fancy twists and turns ski jumpers practice at the nearby aerated pool? Bach didn’t want to watch poolside. Trailed by an entourage of staffers and journalists, he climbed up on the outer slippery, squishy jumps so he could be as close as possible to the action.

Same with skeleton, the headfirst sliding sport that shares a track with bobsled and luge. After hearing starts were being practiced on a concrete side track, he insisted on heading across the park to be there as the helmeted sliders jumped on their wheeled sleds.

At the Utah Olympic Oval earlier in the afternoon, Bach chatted with a group of young figure skaters in sparkling outfits, then joined them on the ice for a photo in his sneakers. He also spent time talking with some young speedskaters who’d been doing sprints around the oval’s running track, passing out heart-shaped enameled lapel pins with the five Olympic rings.

“You see a very happy man in front of you,” Bach told reporters, later explaining his favorite part of any travel is meeting with young athletes. His final term as IOC president will end next year and this could be his last trip to the United States in that role. His visit started with an address to the United Nations in New York City and will end in Los Angeles, host of the 2028 Summer Games.

Utah’s Olympic organizers encouraged to ‘think big’

Bach’s first trip to Utah since 2002 was also about the next steps for Utah’s successful Olympic bidders. The IOC voted to give Utah the 2034 Winter Games on July 24 in Paris, but bidders have been trying to bring another Olympics and Paralympics to the state for more than a decade.

The bar is already being set high for Utah’s second Winter Games, with comparisons to Paris’ successful 2024 Summer Games.

“You have it all,” Bach declared at a celebratory breakfast in the Grand America Hotel garden Saturday, citing the state’s strong public and private support for the Olympics. “You can be for the Winter Games what Paris was for the Summer Games. Paris, with the Summer Games, was the first Olympic Games organized according to our Olympic agenda reforms.”

Those reforms, put in place under Bach, focus on encouraging sustainability and gender parity along with a more youth-oriented and urban Games. “All these ingredients, you have also here in Salt Lake and in Utah. So make use of them,” he said, urging the audience of more than 150 community, business and elected leaders to “think big.”

What’s next for Olympic organizers

The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games that’s behind the bid has until Christmas Eve to make the transition to an organizing committee. There have been behind-the-scenes conversations during Bach’s visit about what that might look like, including with state lawmakers.

“That should now happen soon,” Bach told reporters, calling it “the first and very important step’ to form the committee that will be responsible for putting on what will add up to a $4 billion price tag, set to be paid for privately, largely through the sale of sponsorships, broadcast rights and tickets.

But with the next Summer Games also being held in the United States, Utah organizers won’t be able to sell domestic sponsorships for 2034 until after 2029. Bach said he’s been reassured that the state’s donor base is strong enough to ensure there’s enough money to cover organizing costs for the next five years. Private contributions paid for the bid process.

“Very much so. I’ve received very encouraging news here from the private sector. There is already a great engagement to do this kind of bridge financing,” Bach said. “I have no doubt after all the meetings we’ve had. Also, the public sector is very much behind the Games. So don’t worry.”

He was also asked about the last-minute addition to Utah’s host contract that allows the IOC to take back the 2034 Games if “the supreme authority of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) in the fight against doping is not fully respected or if the application of the World Anti-Doping Code is hindered or undermined” by the United States.

The new language, sparked by a U.S. government investigation into allegations involving how failed doping tests by Chinese swimmers were handled, was added as “a matter of honesty. We had to advise Salt Lake that there is this risk because of a decision that may be taken by WADA. It isn’t our decision,” Bach said in some of his first public comments about the matter.

Utah “had nothing to do with this,” the IOC president said. “It’s not up to them to comply.” He said the action by the IOC is also “a matter of even greater confidence because we would not have allocated the Games to Salt Lake 10 years ahead if we would not have had full confidence that this matter will be resolved between WADA and USADA (the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency).”

It’s the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee that’s stepped up to help mend the rift between the international and U.S. anti-doping agencies at the heart of the controversy. USOPC Chair Gene Sykes, who is also an IOC member, told the Deseret News the head of USADA attended a dinner hosted for Bach in Colorado Springs this week.

“I have as much confidence as I’ve ever had that this is not going to have a bearing on Utah,” Sykes said.

“We’re in great hands,” Fraser Bullock, the bid committee’s president and CEO, said. “It’s not our issue.”

Bullock, who served as the chief operating officer of the 2002 Games, said the biggest challenge Utah’s Olympic organizers now face is maximizing the opportunity of hosting again.

“We have the venues. We have great people. We are very confident in our ability to host the Games,” he said. “But how can we level up and do something even more impactful for our communities, create unity in our communities, create unity in our state, inspire our entire country and eventually the whole world?”

Bach meets with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

On Friday, Bach met with several leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Church Administration Building, including President Jeffrey R. Holland and Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as well as emeritus General Authority Elder Donald L. Hallstrom.

“No one will be more supportive of these Olympics than we will,” President Holland said. “We’re thrilled to contribute in any way we can. We want you to feel that there’s no more hospitable place in the United States — or on this planet — than you have here.”

Church leaders presented Bach with a four-generation chart of his ancestors and a leather-bound copy of the Book of Mormon. Bach gave President Holland a set of Olympic rings. Joining Bach at Temple Square were IOC Director General Christophe de Kepper and Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi.

Also at the meeting were Bullock and the bid committee chair, Catherine Raney Norman; Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall; Don Stirling of the Miller Group; and 2024 Summer Games silver medalist Kenneth Rooks.

The 10th-ranked Utah Utes clash with their former Pac-12 rival Arizona Wildcats in what is now a Big 12 Conference game for both teams. The game is scheduled to start at 10:15 p.m. ET (7:15 p.m. PT) with TV coverage on ESPN and streaming on-demand.

• How to watch: Live streams of the Utah vs. Arizona game are available with offers from FuboTV (free trial), SlingTV (low intro rate) and DirecTV Stream (free trial).
• For a limited time, FuboTV is offering $30 off the first month after the free trial period. With $30 offer, plans start at $49.99.

Arizona Wildcats (2-1) at #10 Utah Utes (4-0)

NCAA football matchup at a glance

When: Saturday, Sept. 28 at 10:15 p.m. ET (7:15 p.m. PT)

Where: Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, Utah

TV channel: ESPN

Live streams: FuboTV (free trial) | SlingTV (low intro rate) | DirecTV Stream (free trial)

Utah is off to a strong 1-0 start in Big 12 play as part of its overall 4-0 start, winning a showdown with Oklahoma State, 22-19, on the road last weekend. The Utes got 182 yards on the ground from Micah Bernard while their defense held Oklahoma State to 285 yards. Three giveaways will surely be a focal point for Arizona after allowing the Cowboys to stay in the game despite all other metrics being in Utah’s favor.

The early betting line opened with Utah as a 12.5-point favorite, but the spread was bet down to 9.5 as of Friday, Sept. 27. The Wildcats lost their last time out, 31-7, to No. 14 Kansas State on the road and had a bye last weekend.

Utah Utes vs. Arizona Wildcats: Know your live streaming options

• FuboTV (free trial) – excellent viewer experience with huge library of live sports content; free trial lengths vary; monthly rate after free trial starts at $49.99 for duration of $30 first month discount.
• SlingTV (low intro rate) – discounted first month is best if you’ve run out of free trials or you’re in the market for 1+ month of TV
• DirecTV Stream (free trial) – not the same level of viewer experience as FuboTV, but the standard 7-day free trial is still the longest in streaming.

The Utes and Wildcats are set for a 10:15 p.m. ET start on ESPN. Live streams are available from FuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial) and SlingTV (low intro rate).