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SALT LAKE CITY — International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is set to spend Sept. 27 and 28 in Utah during a trip to the United States.
Plans for his visit include meetings with organizers of the recently awarded 2034 Winter Games, elected officials, bid supporters and athletes, as well as touring the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah Olympic Park near Park City, and the student housing at the University of Utah that served as the Athlete Village in the 2002 Winter Games.
While in the U.S., Bach is also expected to makes stops at the United Nations in New York City, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee in Colorado Springs, and Los Angeles, the site of the 2028 Summer Games. He announced earlier this summer he would not seek another term next year as leader of the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee.
"It is an honor to have President Bach visit Salt Lake City-Utah to experience firsthand our culture of Olympism, the preparedness of our venues, the enthusiasm of our communities for sport, and the deep roster of Olympic and Paralympic athletes who call Utah their home," Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games President and CEO Fraser Bullock said.
What will IOC President Thomas Bach do in Utah?
Bullock said there will be more than a dozen Olympic committee staff members accompanying Bach on what will be his first visit to the state since 2002. A luncheon with elected officials and other leaders from venue communities is planned "so they can see the enthusiasm at the grass roots level where the Games happen," he said.
Also scheduled during the visit is what Bullock called a "celebratory breakfast" that Saturday with the Utahns behind the successful bid begun more than a decade ago, including the donors who financed the effort to land what will add up to a $4 billion event that's also privately funded, largely through the sale of sponsorships, broadcast rights and tickets.
But Bullock said what Bach really "loves to do is interact with athletes," so Olympians like 2002 gold medal speedskater Derek Parra along with young up and coming competitors will be on hand to greet the Olympic committee president at the Olympic venues from 2002 that will be used again in 2034.
There will also be discussion during the visit about the Utah committee's transition from bidding to organizing a Winter Games, including looking at the long-term sponsorship prospects now that another international sponsor, Panasonic, is joining Toyota in ending its contract with the Olympic committee, Bullock said.
International Olympic Committee members voted to give Utah another Olympics on July 24, during their meeting in Paris ahead of the 2024 Summer Games. Bach's trip to the state will be the first by an Olympic committee official since the vote. In April, the Olympic committee's Future Host Commission spent several days evaluating the venues from 2002 that will be used again in 2034.
Bach, an Olympic champion in fencing from Germany, was in the United States in 2022, where he met with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and other U.N. officials in New York and attended the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, before heading to Los Angeles to visit with 2028 organizers.
He was first elected president in September 2013, but was on the IOC Executive Board during the lead up to the 2002 Winter Games. Seven Olympic committee members are in the running to replace Bach as president, including Juan Antonio Samarach, Jr., whose late father served in the top spot when Salt Lake City was named the 2002 host.
Bullock, the chief operating officer of Utah's 2002 Games, recalled his interactions with Bach back then.
"He was a very strong supporter of our Games and, as part of the IOC Executive Board, having that support and having him here to experience the Games was fantastic," Bullock said, adding Bach offered "a lot of wisdom. ... I just remember his strong, positive presence."
