The Olympic Cauldron burns again, marking the 20-year anniversary of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics opening ceremony at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Sapporo, Japan wants to host the 2034 Winter Olympic Games. If it does, the possibility of Salt Lake City hosting the games could be pushed to 2038.
Frasier Bullock, president of the Salt Lake City, Utah Committee for the Olympic Games, joined Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News to share his insight.
Beginning the conversation, he said he is not surprised by the announcement from Japan.
“We know that things are fluent and things change,” he told Caplan. “The one thing that doesn’t change is our bid, we believe, is incredibly strong. We’re very well positioned and we just focus on what we do … We recognize that things around us are always going to change.”
Additionally, he said other than Sapporo, Salt Lake City’s competition for hosting the games is not entirely known.
“There are always people that talk about interest in hosting a games,” he said. “But, getting from talking about hosting to actually delivering a full complete bid is a long challenging road. Even if they have interest, whatever city it is, it’s a long challenging thing to put together.”
Bullock said Sapporo’s announcement changes nothing about Salt Lake City’s strategy to host the 2034 games.
“Right now there’s no other bid out there that is solid (and) ready to go for any games other than our bid,” he said. “We’re very optimistic as to how things will unfold over the next year and a half, as the bids are awarded.”
Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News can be heard on weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m.