Winter Olympic Game Hosts chosen for 2030 and 2034!

 

The Winter Olympic Game hosts for 2030 and 2034 were chosen today!  

The French Alps will get the 2030 games (sorry Vancouver) and Salt Lake City will get the 2034 games!  I think this is fantastic!  France hasn't hosted the Winter Olympics in quite some time and they have all the facilities for Luge, Bobseld, and Ski Jumping and such up in the Alps.  Paris and Chamonix hosted the first modern era Winter Olympic Games in 1924, so this is another welcome return!

Salt Lake City, unlike other Olympic Host Cities, has thrived since the 2002 Games by capitalizing on the use of the venues by regular folks for winter sports.  While the facilities, I'm sure, will get a facelift, most of the venues are still quite useful so the cost can be kept down.

The next Winter Olympic Games will be held in Milan - Cortano region of Italy in 2026.  This will be the first "region" to be awarded the games.  For some time now, a "City" gets named as the host but the events actually take place nearby.  This is especially true for Winter Events since you need mountains, and most cities just aren't right there in the mountain.  The French Alps being named continues this "Regional" choice for the host of the 2030 games.  Even the Paris games are quite dispersed with Sailing being in Marseille, Soccer being contested in throughout France at the numerous Soccer stadiums, and Surfing being held in Tahiti!

Congratulations to Salt Lake City!  Vancouver will have to try for the 2038 games, I guess.