3 Questions With 4-time Olympian Catherine Raney-Norman

Are you among the 75% of Utahns that are super hyped on the Olympics returning to our state? City Cast Salt Lake host Ali Vallarta is not convinced. She chatted with Catherine Raney-Norman, a four-time Olympian and chair of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games to hear her case for bringing the Olympic dream back to SLC.

Do we actually have the infrastructure and the resources to host the Olympics again?

“Yeah, absolutely. I think we're even better prepared than we were in 2002 and that’s taking into account the growth that we’ve seen. I think the NBA All Star game was a great example of us as a city being able to have the capacity to pull off a major sporting event. Salt Lake City 2002 was the impetus for mass transit in Utah. One of the most beautiful things that came out of it was [UTA’s] TRAX. We're really trying to work closely with key stakeholders across the community (including political and business) to see what's on the horizon for the city and how we can use a games to be a catalyst for that.”

One of the biggest issues facing our city right now is a housing crisis that has led to a homelessness crisis. And during the 2002 Olympics, we saw Salt Lake City residents being evicted from low rent homes and motels so that landlords could make a bigger profit off of visitors. What is the case for how lower income community members benefit from an Olympics?

“When you host a games, you're talking about thousands of jobs that are gonna be created during that time period. When you look at what happened back in ‘02 with those evictions and trying to raise rates so that they could capitalize during the games, we'll work closely with political officials to make sure and advocate for policy against that so that can't happen. ​​We're not a political entity, right? But our goal is to try to improve our community and have a good impact on our community. So I think that we can be helpful in some of those conversations and dialogues.”

We all watched during the Beijing Winter Olympics as they created snow with 49 million gallons of water. Of course, we can't afford to do that in Utah with our dwindling Great Salt Lake. How do we take our future water needs into account with the winter Olympics?

“The changing climate that is happening around the world is dramatically impacting winter sports. So when we look at hosting future games, if we are selected as a host in 2030 or 2034, we are required by the International Olympic Committee to deliver a climate positive games. We'll have to have a carbon management plan that'll be outlined for all games-related activities. We have been working with community partners like Utah Clean Energy and Save Our Canyons to have those conversations ahead of time as to what sustainability looks like.”

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