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Salt Lake City voted as host of 2034 Olympic Winter Games – with a doping investigation caveat
The Winter Games are coming to the U.S. Leaders of the 142nd International Olympic Committee Session announced on Wednesday that Salt Lake City, Utah, will be the host of the Olympic Winter Games 2034, promising “an exceptional experience for athletes and visitors, in state-of-the-art venues.”
Officials decided on the host in an 83-6 vote, a photo of the tally released by the IOC shows. The committee also voted that the French Alps will host the Winter Games in 2030.
The last time the Winter Games were held in the U.S. was in 2002, bringing nothing but excitement to U.S. athletes. The country’s ski and snowboard team said on X that “there’s nothing quite like home snow.”
“Back on home soil,” Team USA posted on X. “Team USA is honored to welcome the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to the U.S. in 2034.”
In a report released earlier this month about the validity of having the state host The Games, the IOC said that “Utah has a proven ability to deliver high-level sports competitions.”
“Since 2002, Utah Sports Commission has supported over 1,00 events, including 175 elite events such as world cups and championships. Hosting in 2034 would prolong the lifespan of the outstanding venues from 2002, maintained to high standards by their owners, their operators and the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation,” the report says, adding that having the Winter Olympics there “would help to meet the needs of a city and region that have experienced huge societal changes.”
“Utah is the youngest state in the USA, with a median age of 31, and has one of the fastest-growing economies,” the report continues. “Commitment to sport and to giving back is embedded in the Utahn DNA.”
The decision was not unexpected. According to the Associated Press, Utah’s capital was granted exclusive negotiating rights last year.
The formal announcement, however, came with an important clause in the city’s contract – local officials have to work with federal officials “to alleviate your concerns” about doping investigations. The president of the IOC is upset with the FBI’s investigation into the World Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to accept China’s reason behind nearly two dozen positive drug tests among its swimmers at the Tokyo Olympics, AP reports, and the clause allows the IOC to end its Salt Lake City deal if the World Anti-Doping Agency’s authority is undermined.
China’s Anti-Doping Agency has said the tests were positive because of food contamination, according to The Salt Lake Tribune, and none of the swimmers have faced repercussions so far. Five of the swimmers involved won medals at the Tokyo Olympics. U.S. officials, however, have taken that information with a grain of salt and are investigating the matter based on Congress’ 2019 Rodchenkov Act that allows such investigations of doping at international events if it could be detrimental to U.S. athletes.
“We will work with our members of Congress,” Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox said ahead of the 2034 vote, according to the AP, “we will use all the levers of power opn to us to resolve these concerns.”
According to the website for the 2034 Games, competition venues will be set up in two zones.
The Salt Lake City Zone, located downtown, would host venues for ice hockey, figure skating and short track, curling and speed skating, and big air. It will also be home to the Olympic Village, medals plaza and the opening and closing ceremony stadium.
The second zone, the Wasatch Back (Mountain) Zone located about an hour from the Olympic Village, will be home to the freestyle and snowboard events.
“We’re ready to once again welcome the world to Utah,” Cox posted on X. “Let’s Go!”
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Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
