With Boston bid out, another Salt Lake Olympics gains traction


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SALT LAKE CITY — Now that Boston's bid for the 2024 Summer Games has ended, is there a chance of another Olympics for Salt Lake City?

"We stand ready to host the Games any time," said Fraser Bullock, the chief operating officer of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

That could be 2026, he said, if the U.S. Olympic Committee doesn't choose another bid city to compete against a long list of international contenders for the Summer Games by the Sept. 15 deadline.

"If not, then 2026 makes a lot of sense, and I think the USOC would be ready to pursue that," Bullock said. "But I think their top priority is 2024."

Boston and the USOC announced Monday that the city's bid for 2024 was over, after the city's bid was undercut by its own mayor, a skeptical public and USOC leaders.

Salt Lake City geared up to bid for the 2022 Winter Games, but the USOC decided not to field a candidate, choosing instead to go after the more lucrative 2024 Summer Games.

Now, the International Olympic Committee faces a choice Friday between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the 2022 Winter Games, after more promising cities dropped out of the race.

With Boston and the USOC announcing Monday that the city's bid for 2024 has ended, Salt Lake could end up having a shot at a second Olympics after all. The IOC is set to pick the host of the 2026 Winter Olympics in 2019.

Jeff Robbins, Utah Sports commission president and CEO, said Salt Lake City would face competition from other U.S. cities should the USOC decide to seek the 2026 Winter Games.


Ready, willing and able is our motto. We're in a great position should a winter bid become available.

–Jeff Robbins, Utah Sports commission president and CEO


But Robbins said Salt Lake City would put up a tough fight because of the city's strong Olympic legacy.

"Ready, willing and able is our motto," Robbins said. "We're in a great position should a winter bid become available."

Bullock has said Salt Lake City could be ready to host an Olympics in about half the usual seven years, thanks to Utah's existing Olympic facilities that continue to be upgraded for international competition.

But first, the USOC must decide quickly whether to make another 2024 Summer Games bid.

With the deadline looming, several Olympic leaders have quietly been pushing Los Angeles — the city that invented the modern-day template for the Olympics when it played host in 1984 — as the best possible substitute.

Scott Blackmun, CEO of the USOC, said the committee still wants to host the 2024 Games.

"Boston 2024 has expressed confidence that, with more time, they could generate the public support necessary to win the bid and deliver a great games," Blackmun said. "They also recognize, however, that we are out of time if the USOC is going to be able to consider a bid from another city."

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The Boston bid started souring within days of its beginning in January, beset by poor communication and an active opposition group that kept public support low. At his news conference, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said the opposition to the Olympics amounted to about "10 people on Twitter." He miscalculated, and the Internet struck back. The hashtag #10peopleonTwitter started trending.

Boston 2024 chairman Steve Pagliuca said the move was made "in order to give the Olympic movement in the United States the best chance to bring the Games back to our country in 2024."

The United States hasn't hosted a Summer Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996, or any Olympics since the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002. Bids for 2012 (New York) and 2016 (Chicago) both ended in fourth-place embarrassments.

The USOC spent nearly two years on a mostly secret domestic selection process for 2024 that began with letters to almost three dozen cities gauging interest in hosting the games. The thought was that the long gap between Olympics, combined with the USOC's vastly improved relationship with international leaders, would make this America's race to lose. Instead, the USOC ran into trouble before getting to the starting line.

Upcoming Olympic Games
  • 2016 Rio — Summer
  • 2018 PyeongChang — Winter
  • 2020 Tokyo — Summer
  • 2022 TBD — Winter

There's still time to save face if chairman Larry Probst and Blackmun make quick phone calls to leaders in Los Angeles, including Mayor Eric Garcetti and agent/power broker Casey Wasserman. Garcetti released a statement saying he'd had no contact with the USOC, but was willing to talk.

Los Angeles, a finalist in the domestic bid process along with San Francisco and Washington, has already hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympics.

Boston bidders will never know how they would have stacked up against Rome, Paris, Hamburg, Germany, and, quite possibly, Toronto, which is considering a bid. The bid's one and only public disclosure report, released in March, said they spent $2 million over the initial months of the bid.

Contributing: Eddie Pells, AP National Writer

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