France Awarded 2030 Winter Olympics & Salt Lake City Gets 2034 Games

24th July 2024

Last modified on July 25th, 2024

The outcome was a dead cert and comes as no great surprise. UPDATED

The 142nd International Olympic Committee Session is taking take place 23rd – 24th July at the Palais des Congres in Paris.

The winners have now been formally announced.

BREAKING IOC awards 2030 Winter Olympics to French Alps, subject to financial commitments #AFPSports pic.twitter.com/Fakf0bMhun
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 24, 2024

Reaction has been swift with President Macron commenting on X.

Les Alpes françaises accueilleront les Jeux olympiques et paralympiques d’hiver 2030 !
Merci au CIO pour sa confiance en notre pays et sa montagne. Félicitations aux élus et acteurs qui ont œuvré pour cette réussite. Faisons des Jeux innovants, durables et inclusifs. pic.twitter.com/3ditxxaJRr
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 24, 2024

President Macron helped present the bid to IOC members.

It is subject to financial commitments but these are expected to be made.

Recent elections have meant the French government has not been able to provide the necessary financial guarantees to the IOC.

For the 2030 Games the French bid was up against Stockholm-Åre in Sweden and a Switzerland bid which was a joint one by cities and cantons.

Salt Lake City in the USA also bidded for the 2030 Games.

The US city was the only candidate for the 2034 Games and not surprisingly it was victorious.

BREAKING: The Winter Olympics will make a return visit to Salt Lake City in 2034. https://t.co/Y5B8qay1vS
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 24, 2024

We previewed the vote earlier on PlanetSKI:

France & USA set to host 2030 & 2034 Winter Olympics

The French Alps bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics was backed by the International Olympic Committee with the IOC already in a targeted dialogue phase with France.

Usually there is last-minute suspense as the hosts are chosen with the announcement an edge of the seat affair for the delegations.

Not this time.

IOC recommends France & USA hold 2030 & 2034 Winter Olympics

“The future host commission is confident that these two preferred hosts represent a great opportunity for successful and sustainable Olympic Winter Games,” said the head of the IOC’s future host commission, Karl Stoss, ahead of the Session.

It was a formality.

And the Olympic Winter Games 2030 will be…
the #FrenchAlps2030 🇫🇷🏔️!!
A delighted French delegation, led by @EmmanuelMacron, with @DLappartient & @FranceOlympique reacts to the election at the IOC Session. pic.twitter.com/eJgrP7Xcfq
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) July 24, 2024

Next was a presentation for the Salt Lake Cit 2034 bid with Lindsey Vonn singing its praises:

The Salt Lake City-Utah 🇺🇸 project for the Olympic Winter Games 2034 #SLCUT2034 is now being presented to the 142nd IOC Session.
Olympian skier @lindseyvonn outlines one of the main themes of the project. pic.twitter.com/FE7iPSiW56
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) July 24, 2024

It has now been formally declared the winner:

WE DID IT!! 🇺🇸🎉🇺🇸🎉
The votes are in and the Olympic & Paralympic Games are OFFICIALLY coming back to Salt Lake City, Utah in 2034!!#SLCUT2034 pic.twitter.com/tuLbllWjBf
— Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 (@SLC2030) July 24, 2024

As it was the only bidder it was also a foregone conclusion with Salt Lake City already announcing plans for its celebrations earlier:

Event Schedule

4-6 p.m.
Festival in the Olympic Plaza at the Utah Olympic Park featuring activities, vendors, giveaways, Olympian and Paralympian meet and greet and food.

15-6:30 p.m.
Presentation and Speakers

6:30-7 p.m.
Flying Ace All-Stars Freestyle Show

7-9 p.m.
Live Music by Freedog in the Olympic Plaza

Here at PlanetSKI we’ll be updating this article with reaction and a detailed look at the French bid, so do check back.

Park City Mountain is a proud venue for the Olympic Winter Games Salt Lake City-Utah 2034! We are thrilled to host men’s and women’s snowboarding halfpipe, snowboarding slopestyle, freestyle skiing halfpipe and freestyle skiing slopestyle. 🇺🇸 🏂 ⛷️ pic.twitter.com/dFTTl5TVXZ
— Park City Mountain (@PCski) July 24, 2024

They will be the 26th and 27th editions of the Winter Olympics.

The smart money for the 2038 Winter Olympics is on Switzerland.

While the Swiss bid has missed out for 2030 the IOC has granted it special status by inviting it into ‘Privileged Dialogue’ for the 2038 Games.

Switzerland is hoping to stage a Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games through a decentralised nationwide model that will be largely privately financed.

Switzerland has hosted the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948.

Other bids have failed to gather momentum amid lack of public backing.

“We now have the opportunity to further develop our project together and are convinced that with our framework conditions, great experience and reliability, we are an excellent partner for the IOC, also with a view to 2038, in order to effectively advance the process towards a next-generation Games” said the Swiss Olympic president, Jürg Stahl.