- Utah had a busy year preparing for the 2034 Winter Olympics throughout 2025.
- Over $200 million has been pledged for the $4 billion Games budget, with no tax funding at all.
- The new "Utah 2034" logo also faced criticism, while Salt Lake City was omitted from the name.
SALT LAKE CITY — The world may be focused on the 2026 Winter Games set to start in February in Milan-Cortina, Italy, but preparations are already underway for Utah's second Olympics and Paralympics that will take place in just over eight years.
The International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City in July 2024, but it took until February of last year for state officials to put together the organizing committee.
With bid leader Fraser Bullock as president and executive chairman, and a former Utah House speaker, Brad Wilson, as CEO, the privately funded Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games has been working largely behind the scenes.
Still, the past year saw some significant steps for Utah's next Olympics, including making it clear with a new "Utah 2034" logo that this time around, the Winter Games were being hosted by the entire state, not just Salt Lake City.
In September, organizers announced more than $200 million had been pledged toward the $4 billion price tag for staging another Winter Games from individuals and foundations either based in Utah or with strong ties to the state giving as much as $20 million each.
The Podium34 program was hailed for the unprecedented level of donations to an Olympics. When Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Games, a total of about $44 million was raised through what was called the 2002 Olympic Ambassadors program.
At a reception for the donors, Gov. Spencer Cox described the 2034 Games as an opportunity for Utahns "to share with the world who we are and what we believe in. And who we are, are people that serve and give back."
The new president of the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, also praised the generosity in a recorded message played at the reception, telling the donors they were "sending a powerful message to the world."
Contributions will cover the organizing committee's costs until 2029, when the commercial rights now held by the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles become available and sponsorships can be sold.
No state or local tax dollars are included in the budget for Utah's next Winter Games, which relies largely on revenues raised from the sale of sponsorships, broadcast rights and tickets. The federal government is expected to oversee security.
Another key announcement in 2025 launched the sale of Winter Games merchandise, featuring the new logo unveiled on an art installation at the Salt Lake City International Airport shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday.
The design, intended to reflect both Utah's landscapes and history, has been criticized as hard to read. The unusually shaped letters and numbers have also been compared unfavorably on social media to "The Flintstones" cartoon that depicted a Stone Age family.
Even the governor has suggested what is considered a "transitional" logo set to be revised or replaced in 2029 might be too "bold" for his conservative tastes. Others, including a Brigham Young University design expert, have called it "different, but memorable."
It wasn't what the logo looked like but what was missing that struck Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. Although the successful bid for a second Winter Games was called "Salt Lake City-Utah," the official name now only includes the state.
Bullock has said 2034 is "an opportunity to widen Utah's brand around the world, just like we did with Salt Lake City in 2002," but Mendenhall said the decision "stings." Salt Lake City's name will only be added beneath the logo in some instances.
The new branding isn't a surprise. The state has played a larger role from the bid's beginning, with a trio of the state's top leaders, Cox, House Speaker Mike Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams, naming the organizing committee leaders and membership.
Salt Lake City was the final stop for the year on the organizing committee's ongoing "listening tour" of venue communities. After the private meeting, Bullock and a city official filling in for an ailing Mendenhall said the name change wasn't discussed.
It's an issue, Bullock said, that's "been raised. We've established it. And we've moved on."
