DENVER – Members of the United States Olympic Committee were in Denver on Tuesday to meet with local officials as Denver and the state of Colorado continue to explore the idea of hosting the Winter Olympics sometime in the future.
Though no specific plans have been made, USOC officials have said they’re focused on finding a U.S. host city for 2030 or beyond.
Local officials insist any Winter Games hosted in Colorado wouldn’t use taxpayer funds and Rob Cohen, the chair of Denver’s Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Exploratory Committee, said the committee met with the USOC to further discussions about the possibility of hosting a privately-funded Winter Games.
“The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is working to identify a host partner for a future Winter Games in 2030 or beyond, and we met with USOC members in Denver today as part of a site visit,” Cohen said. “The meeting gave us an opportunity to share our vision for how we could host a world-class, privately funded Winter Games in our state, as well as to share comprehensive operational and financial details that were included in the Denver and Colorado Olympic and Paralympic Exploratory Committee Final Report released this past summer.”
That report, which can be found online here, recommended that any Olympics hosted in Denver be privately-funded and backed by insurance to mitigate risks and cost overruns, organized in a way that limits environmental impact and voted on by Colorado residents, among other stipulations.
Due to financial, environmental and human rights concerns, among others, the notion of bringing the Winter Games to Colorado has been incredibly controversial. Denver remains the only city to be awarded the Olympics only to turn down the opportunity. The 1976 Winter Games ended up going to Innsbruck, Austria instead.
Salt Lake City, Utah, which hosted the Winter Games in 2002, has already expressed interest in hosting again in 2030.