PARIS (AP) — What was expected to be a simple celebration of Salt Lake City being selected to host the 2034 Winter Olympics got complicated in Olympic politics Wednesday when the IOC pressured Utah authorities to drop an FBI investigation into an alleged doping cover-up.
The International Olympic Committee is US Federal Investigation into Doping Allegations A Chinese swimmer has been allowed to compete in the Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for drugs. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has accepted China’s explanation for the tests, and US authorities are currently investigating the decision under anti-conspiracy laws passed after the Russian doping scandal at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
President Thomas Bach wants WADA to have sole authority over Olympic doping cases, especially with Los Angeles hosting the Summer Olympics in 2028. The IOC added a clause to Salt Lake City’s hosting contract, requiring local organizers, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, to ask for the federal investigation to be dropped or risk losing the Olympics.
Cox and others have pledged to lobby the U.S. president and Congress.
“If the United States does not uphold or violates the World Anti-Doping Federation’s rules, I agree to withdraw the United States and the Olympics from the United States,” Cox said after the announcement. “That was the only way we could guarantee the Olympics would go ahead.”
Even in global Olympic diplomacy, it was a remarkable move of power to get government officials to publicly agree to lobby the IOC.
After receiving consent from the Utah delegation to the provision, the IOC formally awarded Salt Lake City the host city for the 2034 Winter Olympics by a vote of 83-6.
Following the IOC’s decision, the Utah capital was the only candidate site. Salt Lake City was awarded exclusive negotiating rights last year. It’s a quick process.
The campaign team, which presented its bid onstage to IOC members, included Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and alpine skiing giant Lindsey Vonn. Back homeAt 3am, the general public gathered to watch the broadcast from Paris.
The contract includes a clause that requires Utah officials to work with the current and future U.S. presidents and members of Congress “to allay concerns” about the federal doping investigation.
An IOC clause allows the Olympic organizing committee to terminate its contract with Salt Lake City if WADA’s authority is undermined on U.S. soil.
WADA’s involvement has been heavily questioned after an investigation by Chinese authorities found traces of a banned heart drug in the hotel kitchen on all 23 swimmers. The three gold medals won by China in the pool at the Tokyo Olympics were won by swimmers involved in the incident, some of whom will also compete in Paris next week.
The case may be investigated in the United States. Federal Law It is named after a whistleblower on Russian state doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
The IOC and WADA: Rodchenkov MethodThe bill would give U.S. federal agencies broad jurisdiction to crack down on doping around the world before Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics in 2028.
“We will work with lawmakers,” Cox told Bach and IOC voters ahead of the 2034 vote. “We will use every lever of power at our disposal to address these concerns.”
Salt Lake City first hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002, a bid marred by a bribery scandal that led to anti-corruption reforms at the IOC.
The games went well despite heavy security, with future Senator Mitt Romney tapped to clean up after the event, the largest international sporting event hosted by the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks five months earlier.
“It’s unfortunate for you and it’s unfortunate for us that this issue has come up now,” Bach told the delegation in Salt Lake City ahead of the vote.
It is an Olympic tradition for members of parliament and heads of state to attend IOC meetings and campaign to be chosen as the host city.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in English in 2007 and helped secure the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a key intervention in 2005, helping to secure the 2012 London Olympics. US President Barack Obama visited Copenhagen in 2009, but it did nothing to help Chicago’s defeat, which saw the 2016 Summer Olympics awarded to Rio de Janeiro.
A second bid would give Salt Lake City nearly a decade to prepare — the longest for any modern Winter Olympics — amid long-term concerns that climate change could affect snow sports and reduce the number of potential host cities.
Salt Lake City chose to target 2034, thus avoiding a potential commercial and logistical clash with the 2028 Summer Olympics to be held in Los Angeles.
This will be the fifth Winter Olympics held in the United States. Prior to the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, the Games were held in Lake Placid in 1980 and 1932, and in Squaw Valley (now known as Olympic Valley) in 1960.
In another earlier ruling in Paris, Japan to host the 2030 Winter Olympics It will provide conditional funding to France for a regional project spanning the Alpine ski resorts and the Côte d’Azur city of Nice.
The project requires formal approval from the central government to be established. The Prime Minister has yet to be confirmedHe helped present the 2030 bid to IOC members on Wednesday, following elections recently called by President Emmanuel Macron.
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