‘They’re coming back to Utah someday’: Sen. Mitt Romney visits Park City Olympics celebration

Sen. Mitt Romney visited Bob Wells Plaza in Park City on Saturday in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Olympics, and was hopeful Utah will host the games again in the coming years.

The senator talked with attendees and posed for photos at the event, which featured a miniature curling rink, climbing wall and a screening of Olympic highlights. When Salt Lake City hosted the games in 2002, Romney served as president and CEO of the Olympic Games Organizing Committee, and he recounted his memories of the Games to spectators on Saturday.

Romney said the Park City community knows how to serve one another and welcome in visitors, which makes it a perfect host city for the Olympics.

“People came out in record numbers,” Romney said. “They were welcoming, opening homes for visitors to come. … Main Street was just covered with people celebrating, and the athletes were spectacular and our field of play, the quality of our sporting sites, was unparalleled.”

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Freddy Sime and his wife, Edith, try their hand at curling during Saturday's Olympic Celebration in Park City on the Bob Wells Plaza, Feb. 12, 2022. (Leah Hogsten/)

He said because Park City already has venues built, it’s “very likely” it gets to host future Olympic events.

“Whether we get them in 2030, or 2034, or 2038, that’s something which the international politics will determine — because there are a lot of nations that would like Olympic Winter Games,” Romney said. “But they’re coming back to Utah someday.”

Of the 223 athletes representing Team USA this year, more than a third of them have close ties to Utah — and Salt Lake City native Nathan Chen won gold in the men’s figure skating free skate program on Feb. 9.

“It’s really something to see about one-third of our Olympic team in the United States having ties to Utah, many of them born here,” Romney said. “Nathan Chen landing was just an extraordinary thing to watch. And heartfelt moments as well — [speedskater] Brittany Bowe, giving up her spot, I think was in the 500 meter, so that a teammate would be able to go and compete. I mean, these are the kinds of stories that remind you of their quality of the American spirit.”

from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/Gpc9oXP