Before the scandal: How SLC secured the 2002 Winter Olympics
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Thirty years ago this week, Utah was on pins and needles for a big announcement that finally came June 16: Salt Lake City was named the host of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
- Then it turned out mountains of cash were hiding under the greatest snow on Earth.
This is Old News, our weekly attempt to collect the goggles and ski poles lost to the yard sales of time.
The week leading up to the hosting announcement was intense.
- It was SLC's fifth attempt to host the Olympics in 30 years, and polling showed Utahns were not interested in trying again after raising $14 million for the two most recent campaigns.
Zoom in: Officials behind Salt Lake's bid were frantically decorating a tiny "hospitality room" at the Budapest hotel where the International Olympic Committee would vote later in the week.
- While the other finalist cities — representing Canada, Sweden and Switzerland — brought a few posters and brochures, Salt Lake's representatives created a small immersive attraction.
- They installed floor-to-ceiling paintings of Utah scenery (including Styrofoam snow) and speakers playing cowboy songs and Indigenous flute music.
The intrigue: The IOC had told the bidding cities to tone down their hospitality rooms after the elaborate displays four years earlier.
- Spain flew in flamenco dancers. SLC brought real trees into a luxury suite for scenery. Committee members were lavished with gourmet food and gifts — which the IOC tried to prevent in 1995 with a $200 spending cap.
That didn't stop Salt Lake.
Friction point: In 1991, the city lost the 1998 games to Nagano, Japan, by just four votes, despite being considered the favorite.
- Bribery allegations began the day after that decision, with later-substantiated reports that IOC delegates were peppered with millions of dollars' worth of gifts and vacations as part of Japan's pitch.
Not to be outdone, SLC's bid committee spent $1 million on behind-the-scenes gifts and favors for IOC members in the leadup to the 1995 vote — decisively eclipsing their try-hard hospitality room in Budapest.
- Two of Salt Lake's organizers were indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, fraud and racketeering; they were later acquitted.
- 10 IOC members were removed, and 10 more were sanctioned.
The big picture: The revelations in Salt Lake triggered a global scandal and investigations that showed hosting bids for Nagano, Atlanta in 1996, and Sydney in 2000 involved extravagant largesse toward IOC delegates.
Reality check: After five bids to host the games, Utahns were hardly clueless as to the blurry lines between bribery and entertainment.
- In 1995, before the announcement and years before ABC4 exposed the first evidence of payoffs, a columnist for the Ogden Standard-Examiner referred to the IOC as "Incredible Outlays of Cash."
The latest: The Olympics reformed the host bidding process before SLC was picked again last year to host in 2034 — but now it's harder to find cities that want the games badly enough to grease the wheels.
- The costs of hosting have outpaced the revenue from tourism in many cities.
- Amid climate change, the world is running out of cities that can promise enough snow for winter sports decades in the future.