- Utah is among few global locations capable of hosting Winter Games for decades.
- A study indicates Utah's climate reliability may decline by the 2080s with high emissions.
- Starting Olympics in January and the Paralympic Games in February could improve Utah's hosting viability.
SALT LAKE CITY — There may have been a slow start to this year's snow season in Utah, but a new look at the impact of climate change on potential Winter Games sites shows the state is still among a limited number of locations worldwide that could be capable of hosting for decades to come.
"It is among the most climate reliable locations in North America and globally," said Daniel Scott, the co-author of a 2024 climate change study supported by the International Olympic Committee that's just been updated.
But the findings also show that this may no longer be the case by the 2080s, despite the interest expressed by Gov. Spencer Cox and others for Utah becoming a permanent Winter Games host should the IOC choose to start rotating the quadrennial event among selected sites.
Just four locations studied around the world are expected to remain consistently cold enough to keep or make snow through the second part of the Winter Games, the Paralympics for athletes with disabilities held in March, if greenhouse gas emissions are high.
The only site in North America determined to have a reliably cold climate under that scenario?
It's not Utah but Lake Louise, a ski resort about 114 miles from Calgary in Canada's Banff National Park, Scott told the Deseret News. He declined to name the other locations but said two are at a "high elevation" in Europe and one is in Japan.
Site-specific information was not included in the study at the request of the IOC, said Scott, a professor in the geography and environmental management program at Canada's University of Waterloo.
Could Utah host the Olympics in the 2050s and 2080s?
Fraser Bullock, president and executive chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, said a future Utah Winter Games under those conditions could still be possible with some modifications, similar to those suggested in the study update.
"In the high emissions scenario, we would likely need to adjust the Games calendar in order to begin the Paralympics sooner," Bullock said. "We have several options, including starting the Olympic Games earlier or shortening the gap between the Olympics and Paralympics."
He said Utah is in a strong position to become part of any future Winter Games rotation, "given all the factors to be considered, including how we could effectively manage a 2080 calendar for hosting the Olympics and Paralympics."
Scott also told the Deseret News that Snowbasin Resort and Soldier Hollow Nordic Center were the two Utah locations among 93 worldwide specified by the IOC. Other U.S. locations were Colorado's Aspen and Beaver Creek ski resorts and Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire.
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Utah 2034 Olympic leader will run portion of torch relay in Milan
Fraser Bullock, Utah's 2034 Olympics organizing committee chairman, will join the Milan torch relay, it was announced on Tuesday.Both Utah competition venues were used in the 2002 Winter Games and are expected to serve similar roles, with Snowbasin hosting Alpine skiing and Soldier Hollow hosting Nordic skiing when the state once again hosts the Olympics and Paralympics in 2034.
Scott, who conducted the study with Robert Steiger of the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said by the 2050s, only 45 of the 93 locations could count on enough snow and cold temperatures during a February Olympics if emissions are at a high level.
By the 2080s, the number of climate-reliable locations falls to 30. Even if the goal of lower levels of emissions set by the Paris Climate Agreement, which the U.S. withdrew from last year, are achieved, only 55 could host by the 2050s and 54 by the 2080s, Scott said.
Utah remains in the mix for the Olympics through the 2080s, he said, although conditions at Soldier Hollow would be marginal in the 2050s and become unreliable by the 2080s if emissions are high.
Olympic snow stockpiles and Soldier Hollow
The Paralympics, though, are another story.
For Utah, if the Paralympics are held as usual in March, Soldier Hollow's conditions would be unreliable in both the 2050s and 2080s, Scott said, while Snowbasin would be considered reliable only under low emissions and become unreliable under high emissions in the 2080s.
The update to the study looks at the impact of moving the start date for the Olympics and Paralympics by about three weeks, a time shift that Scott said would provide a "big improvement" in conditions at the Paralympics.
Starting the Olympics in January and the Paralympics in February would be a boost to Utah's climate reliability as a Winter Games host beyond 2034, the professor said. But he wouldn't stop there.
Replacing Soldier Hollow with "a more climate reliable, higher elevation venue would strengthen future bids from a climatic perspective," Scott said. Even under an earlier timeframe, he said, conditions at Soldier Hollow would only shift from unreliable to marginal under low-emissions conditions.
Rather than finding a new venue for future bids, Bullock said there are contingency plans to bolster Soldier Hollow's snowpack if temperatures rise, first put in place for the 2002 Winter Games.
"The biggest risk venues for the Winter Games are the Nordic events because you can only go so high. These are endurance events, so there's altitude restrictions," he said, adding that at roughly 6,000 feet, "we're kind of at the limit of how high we can go."
