Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A rare joint meeting of the Utah House and Senate is set for Wednesday to welcome U.S. Olympic Committee officials who'll be in town as part of the process to choose an American city to bid for a future Winter Games.
The joint meeting, announced Tuesday, will be held in the House chambers at 4 p.m. and is expected to last less than 15 minutes, with remarks from legislative leaders and USOC officials who will have spent the day visiting 2002 Winter Games venues.
Outgoing Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, co-chairman of the Salt Lake Executive Committee for the Games with Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, has touted legislative support for another Olympics in Utah.
That includes a committment of $40 million over the next decade to upgrade the 2002 venues that continue to be used for athlete training and winter sports competitions.
Related Story:
Reno-Tahoe pulls out of competition for Winter Olympics, leaving Salt Lake and Denver
Reno-Tahoe, one of Salt Lake City's competitors for another Winter Games, dropped out Monday, leaving only Denver also still in the running to be chosen to bid by the U.S. Olympic Committee.The site visit by the USOC comes after Monday's announcement that Reno-Tahoe was dropping out of the competition, leaving only Salt Lake and Denver still in the running to be chosen by the USOC.
The Colorado Springs-based leaders of the USOC were in Denver Tuesday.
"The meeting gave us an opportunity to share our vision for how we could host a world-class, privately funded Winter Games in our state," Rob Cohen, chairman of Denver's Winter Games exploratory committee, said in a statement.
Cohen said Denver's bid backers were also able "to share comprehensive operational and financial details that were included in the Denver and Colorado Olympic and Paralympic Exploratory Committee Final Report released this past summer."
Members of Utah's Olympic Exploratory Committee released their report at the beginning of the year, showing it would cost just over $1.35 billion to host another Olympics here, less than in 2002, because facilities are already in place.
The USOC is likely to bid for the 2030 Winter Games. The host of those Games are not expected to be named by the International Olympic Committee until 2023.
