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SALT LAKE CITY — Just days away from the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, a crowd gathered on Monday at the Salt Lake City International Airport to send off Utah athletes and delegates representing the state and country across the pond.
"Our country and our world right now desperately need something to bring us together, and over the next two weeks, we're going to see that happen," Gov. Spencer Cox said in his remarks Monday. He added that he never felt such a sense of community than he did when the Winter Olympics were held in Utah in 2002.
"I'm excited to feel it again in Paris, but I can't wait for Utah to host the Games again in 2034," to show the world "the very best of Utah" but also "the very best in the United States of America."
The final vote to name Utah the location of the 2034 Winter Olympics will be made by the International Olympic Committee in Paris on July 24, an already important day for Utahns who will be celebrating Pioneer Day.
The nonstop flight from Salt Lake City to Paris was listed as Delta Flight 2034 — a good omen, and perhaps brilliant marketing — ahead of the IOC's announcement on Wednesday.
"When we go to Paris, we're representing Utah," SLC-Utah Olympic President and CEO Fraser Bullock said. "We're representing all of you, and we're so excited to do that. ... To show the best of the Utah people and what they stand for, and how they're the best volunteers — in my opinion, in the world — the great venues, the great mountains, we get to show all of that to the world in two days."
Bullock also touched on the unifying power Olympic athletes have when they put on their uniforms and represent the United States.
"One of the great things that the Olympics does (is) it brings community, people together under the umbrella of sport, and we're inspired by these wonderful athletes in what they've done or what they will do," Bullock said.
Derek Parra, who won a gold medalist in the men's 1,500-meter speedskating at the 2002 Olympics, told the Deseret News that the Games are the only time a New York Mets fan and a Yankees fan cheer for the same team.
"From a national standpoint and a global standpoint, I think that the Olympics does unite people, race, culture, ethnicity. Sport is unique. It's unlike anything else," he said. "The temperature's really high in our politics around the world and even here in the U.S.," but if the Olympics were to come back to Utah in 2034, "I hope that it brings not only Utah and the country together but also the world together in sport like it did in 2002."
Parra had the privilege of carrying the World Trade Center's American flag into Salt Lake City's opening ceremonies 22 years ago.
"I felt that spirit that united the world at that moment. It was an American flag, but the world was holding that flag up," Parra added. "So I hope that something like that is triggered again, that the world can come together and get by our differences and opinions and just be engulfed in the imagination and the spirits, the hearts and minds of these young kids that are out there competing for their country."
Afterward, the Utah delegation boarded Delta flight 2034 nonstop to Paris in hopes of bringing an Olympic bid back on the return trip.
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Emma Pitts
