As Salt Lake City is selected to host the 2034 Winter Olympics, fans go wild

Salt Lake City, Utah – As they say, “it’s always darkest before the dawn,” yet on Wednesday, Utahans turned out in large numbers to celebrate the return of the Olympic Games to the Wasatch Front, setting off a historic celebration that lighted up Salt Lake City.

When IOC President Thomas Bach revealed that the Olympics would return to Utah, the thousands of people gathered in Washington Square to see the voting process unfold erupted.

“The energy is electric, the crowd was so energetic,” said snowboarder Zach Miller, a Paralympian who’s hoping to compete in 2034.

Following the news, the audience erupted in chants of “S-L-C, S-L-C, S-L-C,” indicating that the majority of Utahns, for the first time since 2002, are in favor of the Games returning to Utah.
There were plenty of people in the crowd sporting red, white, and blue attire as well as USA hats and shirts.

“What a thrill for Utah tonight,” said Sandy Mayor Monica Zoltanski who was in the crowd sporting a cowboy hat. “I’m just so thrilled to be down here and celebrate with everybody.”

“We are just absolutely thrilled!”

Not even Olympic athletes could resist the urge to stay close. Izzy Worthington, a snowboarder, wasn’t too cool to act as though Wednesday’s event wasn’t worthwhile, even though her sister competes for the United States and her father is a two-time Olympian.

“I actually forced a lot of people to come out here because I was like, “This is never going to happen ever again,'” she said.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it’s never going to come back, so you want to get out here and it’s worth it.”