Deseret News Archives - January 25, 1995
It's now or never for Salt Lake City's Olympic bid.
The surprise announcement this week that Salt Lake City won't bid again if the city is not selected by the International Olympic Committee to host the 2002 Winter Games is creating a new sense of urgency in the campaign.
Salt Lake City is one of four cities still in the running for the 2002 Winter Games, along with Ostersund, Sweden; Quebec; and Sion, Switzerland. The IOC will name the host of the 2002 Winter Games in June.
A special IOC selection committee chose the four finalists Tuesday from among the nine cities competing. Eliminated were Graz, Austria; Poprad-Tatry, Slovakia; Sochi, Russia; Tarvisio, Italy; and Jaca, Spain.
"I think this is Salt Lake City's chance," a tired but happy Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee President Tom Welch said in an interview before he left Switzerland on Wednesday morning.
"We ought to put our very best foot forward. If it doesn't happen . . . it may be, if we're not successful, for some a real sadness and for some, there'll be a celebration," he said.
The decision not to bid for the 2006 Winter Games if this bid fails was announced by Welch in response to a question at a press conference Monday. The reason, he said, was that the community cannot support another bid.
The 1998 and 2002 bids will end up costing more than $14 million, nearly all of it raised privately. The time has come to turn those resources over to other community needs, he said.
Salt Lake City has tried four times for the Olympics, beginning in 1965 with a bid for the 1972 Winter Games. Nearly a decade later, Salt Lake City stepped in when Denver backed out of hosting the 1976 Winter Games.
The most painful loss, though, came in June 1991, when the IOC selected Nagano, Japan, over Salt Lake City by just four votes as the site of the Winter Games in 1998.
Between now and June, Welch said, Salt Lake City will strive to show the IOC how the commitments made in the 1998 bid to build facilities and provide infrastructure have been kept.
That strategy will emphasize the technical superiority that gave Salt Lake City its front-runner status in both the 1998 and 2002 campaigns, a strength conceded by the three other finalists and acknowledged in an IOC evaluation.
