Olympics President Thomas Bach visits with young athletes at venues across the state

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.