Due to concerns about climate change, the International Olympic Committee is delaying its decision on who will host the 2030 Winter Olympics. NBC Sports reports that the potential hosts include Salt Lake City, Sapporo, and Vancouver.
It should be noted that there has been a recent onslaught of reluctance from British Columbian government officials for the Vancouver bid, due to the hidden costs of hosting an Olympics. On Japan’s end, a major corruption scandal regarding the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo has recently come to light, which could harm the chances of a successful 2030 bid.
The IOC has also been discussing having a rotational pool of cities, rather than the application process. With this delay, it becomes increasingly likely that they’ll award the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics at the same time.
For Salt Lake City, this delay is a significant victory. There hasn’t been much of a cohesive agreement among officials on whether they should host the games in 2030 or 2034. While they are ready to host at any time, the issue is that Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics, meaning success in a bid against other winter cities is less likely in 2030. On the other hand, the other bidders face significant hurdles. This IOC delay means they can now likely bid on both games, which will be awarded at the same time.
KSL broke down Salt Lake City’s reaction to the news, which you can check out below.
Image/Video Credits: Visit Salt Lake, Tanner Crockett of Unsplash, KSL
