Utah Officially Wins Bid to Host 2034 Olympics, Paralympics

The International Olympic Committee has officially awarded Salt Lake City as the host of the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The news arrived Wednesday morning as the IOC voted 83-6 to award the state the 2034 games.

Since November, Salt Lake City was named the preferred bidder for the games, as no permanent venues needed to be built. While other games had to spend millions on new stadiums — with Tokyo dropping $520 million on an aquatics center and South Korea spending $110 million on a temporary stadium — Utah privately funded a budget of $3.99 billion. The budget is significantly cheaper than Paris’ budget, which lands close to $9 billion.

This will mark the second time Utah has hosted the games; the 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City — the eighth Olympics to be held in the U.S. During the last Olympics held in the Utah capital, there were many tributes to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“In 2002 Utah desperately needed the Olympics,” Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement on Tuesday. “We needed it. It helped put us on the map. It helped us with some economic challenges, infrastructure challenges. It’s a lot different this time around, I think. I think the Olympics needs Utah. We’ve done this before and we have a chance to give back in a very positive way.”

Salt Lake City isn’t alone; the IOC also approved France’s bid for 2030 on Wednesday — with conditions. The IOC mandated that France submit a legally-binding contract that complies with the Olympic charter.