Salt Lake City named host of 2034 Winter Olympics

Spectators gather as the IOC awards the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City on July 24, 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah

Factors like "climate change and high operational costs" have limited the number of cities willing to host the Winter Games

(Image credit: C. Morgan Engel / Getty Images)

By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

published 25 July 2024

What happened

The International Olympic Committee voted on Wednesday to confirm Salt Lake City as the home of the 2034 Winter Games.

The Utah capital's bid had "long been considered an inevitability, given a public approval rating consistently measured near 80% and the plan to reuse all the facilities from the 2002 Games," The Salt Lake Tribune said. Still, the decision to choose the Crossroads of the West came "only after a last-minute demand that the agreement shield global sports authorities from U.S. investigations into doping by Chinese athletes," The New York Times said. Factors like "climate change and high operational costs" have limited the number of cities "willing and able to welcome the Winter Games," CNN said.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.