Returning to France & the US

There were two major announcements today that, while not directly related, definitely have an impact on each other.  On the first day of competition at the Paris Olympics, the IOC confirmed the hosts of the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games, awarding the former to the French Alps and the latter to Salt Lake City.  Meanwhile, the NBA rejected TNT's matching offer and formally approved its new media rights deal with ESPN/ABC, NBC and Amazon, starting with the 2025-26 season.

What do those two things have to do with each other, you ask?  Well, in the new NBA contract, NBC will have the rights to both the All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday Night.  NBC has also arranged its portion of the NFL contract to have Super Bowl rights in Winter Olympic years.  Which means in 2026, 2030 and (most likely) 2034, NBC will have two other major events right smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics (one of which will be in the U.S.!).  So, I'm very curious to see how they schedule everything on those couple of very busy Sundays in February (although, in 2002, they had both the Daytona 500 and NBA All-Star Game during the Winter Olympics, so they have done it before).

Back to the subject at hand, though--the two Winter Olympics.  The approval was always considered a mere formality after the IOC announced each as the "preferred candidate" as part of the new bidding process.  The vote was more of a rubber-stamping, but it did include provisions for each, so they aren't done deals yet. 

France can't sign the required governmental guarantees right now because of the political situation in the country and no actual ruling party at the moment.  Emmanuel Macron has assured the IOC that it'll be one of the first orders of business once the new French Prime Minister takes office, however.  They've only got five-and-a-half years to go, though, so they're already behind the 8-ball, and I'm not sure if there's any sort of Plan B should the IOC not get that government assurance.

The U.S., meanwhile, was basically told that it needs to stay in its lane and accept the fact that WADA has final authority over doping cases.  This was actually necessary since the USADA has had some very public tiffs with WADA, most recently about the Chinese swimmers who were allowed to compete in Tokyo (and will again in Paris) despite failed tests.  Not to mention the fact that the Rodchenkov Act, which somehow makes it a U.S. federal crime to dope in any international sporting event involving American athletes (even though the U.S. has absolutely no jurisdiction over international sports), is unenforceable and most likely makes the U.S. WADA non-compliant.  The USOPC has also given its assurance that it'll play by the rules and abide by WADA's decisions.  Whether the USADA (perhaps the most self-righteous organization in all of sports), FBI and Congress also will is a completely different question.

Assuming all of that is resolved, and there's no reason to think it won't be, it's now official that four of the next six Olympics (including the ongoing games in Paris) will be in either France or the United States, with stops in Italy and Australia mixed in.  After the struggles the IOC had in finding bidders for the past few Winter Olympics, they made a smart move and took the safe bets.  With the short turnaround before the 2030 Games, especially, they needed someone that can organize the Olympics quickly.  Which the French can.

Yes, two Olympics six years apart is quite a commitment, and it's one not every country is willing or able to make.  Japan decided against it, which is why the 2030 Olympics aren't in Sapporo, which was the longtime favorite until dropping out of the race.  The fact that France and the United States were not only in the financial position to do so, but wanted to host Summer and Winter Games so close together made the safe picks the easy ones.

Just as the Paris Games are using virtually all existing facilities, the 2030 Olympics will feature venues throughout the region that are regularly used for World Cup and World Championships competition.  This spread out, regional approach is similar to the one being used by Milan and Cortina in 2026, which, unfortunately, I think will be a way of life with most Winter Olympics in this new era of bidding.  These Games will be so spread out, in fact, that there are five different Olympic Villages in four zones.

When France last hosted the Winter Olympics in 1992, that was one of the big criticisms.  Albertville was the "host" city, but the venues were far apart and the athletes said it felt more like a bunch of individual World Championships rather than an Olympics.  Well, that's exactly what's in store again 5 1/2 years from now, when all three of the French Alpine cities that have previously hosted the Winter Olympics (Chamonix, Grenoble, Albertville) will host events, along with Nice on the Mediterranean coast for the ice sports.

In another nod to Paris and its Opening Ceremony down the Seine, the 2030 Closing Ceremony will be along Nice's famous Promenade des Anglais.  Interestingly, they haven't selected a site for the Opening Ceremony, though (in 1992, they built a temporary stadium just for the ceremonies).  Speed skating, which was famously held outdoors in 1992, will take place outside of France since there aren't any speed skating tracks in the country.  Turin isn't that far from the French border, so I'd imagine that the 2006 Olympic venue (which Milano Cortina didn't want to use) may end up getting pressed into action.  That would seem to make the most sense.

Salt Lake City, meanwhile, is ready to host another Winter Olympics tomorrow.  All of the venues from 2002 not only still exist, they're all still in use.  The USOPC moved pretty much all of its national training centers to the Olympic venues in Salt Lake City after the 2002 Games, and the area has become a premier winter sports destination.  The venues are all ready to go and will require little to no work (and the Delta Center's already being renovated to accommodate the NHL's arrival in Utah)...and they're all set to be used as Olympic venues again 32 years later.  

They're so ready, in fact, that they were willing to step in as hosts in 2030 should no other candidates emerge.  That was never really a viable option since it would've been too close to LA 2028.  Salt Lake 2034 always seemed like the smarter, more logical bet.  So, it wasn't a surprise that Salt Lake City was moved back to 2034 as the only candidate, making its selection a mere formality.

After two straight spread out, regional Winter Olympics (three if you count the mountain venues being 100 miles away from Beijing in 2022), it'll be just the opposite in Salt Lake City.  The 2034 Games promise to be one of the most compact Winter Olympics in history, with every venue located within an hour of the Olympic Village at the University of Utah.  The furthest is the biathlon/cross country course at Soldier Hollow, a whopping 53 miles outside the city.

Going back to Salt Lake City could be a bit of a palate cleanser for the IOC, too.  Their struggles with finding potential Winter Olympic hosts in recent cycles have been well-documented.  So well-documented, in fact, that there's been talk of establishing some sort of permanent rotation (which would almost certainly include Salt Lake City).  Now they're returning to the site of arguably the best, most well-run Winter Olympics ever.  Salt Lake 2002 was a prime example of how a Winter Olympics can be run successfully, and there's no reason to think Salt Lake 2034 won't do it again.

And maybe a second successful Salt Lake City Games is exactly what the Winter Olympics needs.  Especially after all of the upheaval and uncertainty surrounding the selections for the previous three editions, there's something reassuring about having a safe, solid, reliable option.  Which is exactly what they had in Salt Lake City.  And, who knows what'll happen in the next 10 years before Salt Lake 2034?  But maybe it'll be a chance for a much-needed reset.

Most importantly, we have Winter Olympic hosts for the next decade locked in.  That's perhaps the biggest takeaway from the IOC's announcement.  Seven years ago, they did a historic double awarding of 2024 and 2028 to France and the United States.  Now, on the eve of those Paris Games, they've done it again with the Winter Olympics, setting up four of the six Olympics over the next 10 years to be in the same two countries.  It was the smart thing to do then, and it was the smart thing to do again now, even if it does mean a lot of France and the United States in the coming years.