2030 Olympics Heading to France, 2034 To Utah, Probably

France is the ‘preferred candidate’ to host the 2030 Winter Olympics. Salt Lake City has been announced as likely 2034 hosts and a Swiss bid looks most likely to finally the winner in the contest to host the 2038 Games.

The IOC have been grappling with how to plan for future Winter Olympics due to the impact of climate change with ideas including rotating host cities, limiting the games to existing or temporary venues, and establishing minimum average temperature requirements. They’ve previously stated they think that only 10 countries will be capable of hosting the games after 2040 due to the impact of climate change and had previously delayed a decision on the 2030 hosts.

The French bid has been put together jointly by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence – Alpes –Côte d’Azur regions and while not absolutely confirmed as the hosts yet, it is essentially the only bid still in the running with the formal announcement due next summer.

“The commission decided to recommend a double attribution for the 2030 and 2034 Olympic Games to the French Alps and Salt Lake City with a targeted dialogue with its two projects,” said Karl Stoss, the president of the Commission for the Future Host of the Winter Games at the IOC, noting that Switzerland was still in the running for 2038.

The Winter Olympics returning to Italy in 2026 will end a 16 year period of three successive Winter Games in Asia and far eastern Europe with most recent hosts Russia, South Korea and China. France last hosted the winter games in Albertville in 1992.

The 2030 hosts will be formally announced on June 24, 2024, at the start of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics next year.