The Park City-area travelers to the Summer Olympics in Paris learned there can be challenges as the crowds move about the Games region.

Park City Mayor Nann Worel, Summit County Council Chair Malena Stevens and Jennifer Wesselhoff, the president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau, recounted the trip during joint meeting Monday of the Park City Council and County Council at the Richins Building.

The travelers presented a slide that described the experience, calling traffic and transportation the “biggest issue for Parisians.” The slide addressed road closures, communication challenges and dedicated road lanes for vehicles that were part of the official Olympic fleet.

The slide also indicated transportation “between Olympic cities challenging” and there were “not sufficient train tickets.” It was two and a half hours to the closest venue community, and some of the venues were eight hours from Paris, the slide said. There was also information about what the travelers said was a doubling of “the price of transit during the games.”

Worel noted what she considered to be a lack of clear communications regarding transportation as well as the road closures.

Stevens said an app available during the Games did not reflect routes open to the public.

The observations about the transportation system during the Games in Paris came as the Park City area begins planning for the 2034 Winter Olympics. Crafting the transportation plans will be one of the critical tasks for the area governments and an Olympic organizing committee.

The plans will be expected to address routes between Park City and the Salt Lake Valley in addition to movement throughout the Wasatch Back. The system that operated during the 2002 Winter Olympics relied heavily on park-and-ride lots and a reinforced bus system.

There were also brief comments about the economic impact of the Games. A slide indicated lots of Parisians left for the Games and “small businesses (were) impacted by closures.”

Other topics the travelers mentioned on Monday included:

• The presence of 35,000 members of law enforcement in Paris from around the European Union.
• The availability of more than 1,000 water fountains in Paris.

The trip to Paris covered the International Olympic Committee award of the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City and the opening days of the Summer Olympics. The travelers wanted to be in Paris for the awarding of the Games and use the trip as an early fact-finding mission about the staging of an Olympics.

One of the slides shown on Monday mentioned a desire to continue learning about the Games through missions to future Olympics. The next opportunity will be the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

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Park City Mayor Nann Worel’s upcoming trip to the Summer Olympics is projected to cost $12,000 in taxpayer money, City Hall said midweek, likely the first in a series of official Games-related outings over the next decade.

The municipal government provided the information in a communications to the elected officials drafted in anticipation of a Park City Council meeting scheduled on Thursday. It was not clear at the end of the week whether the mayor and City Council will discus the dollar figure or the trip at the meeting.

Worel is slated to travel to Paris as part of the delegation from Utah. She has never attended a Summer Olympics or a Winter Olympics. She plans to leave July 20 and return July 29. The International Olympic Committee is widely expected to award the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City during meetings on the eve of this year’s Summer Olympics. The mayor intends to attend the IOC meetings and observe the first days of the Games in a fact-finding role. Worel, in her role as the mayor, represents Park City’s interests in the Olympic efforts.

The $12,000 is designed to fund a coach-class airline ticket and what is described as a basic hotel room. It will also be put toward expenses such as mileage between Park City and the Salt Lake City airport, parking and a per diem.

The City Council earlier set aside $75,000 in the current budget year for Olympic-related expenses like travel, studies and consultant work.

It seems almost certain City Hall will send officials to future Games as part of the preparations for 2034. There was significant travel in the years before the 2002 Winter Olympics, with Park City having an on-the-ground presence during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and the Summer Olympics of 2000 in Sydney.

“Historically, Park City officials traveled on all official Olympic delegation trips leading up to the 2002 Winter Olympics. This was an important element to ensuring Park City retained its jurisdictional representation, strong relationships, and coordinated with applicable local, state, federal, and international officials,” says the City Hall communications, drafted by Michelle Downard, the municipal resident advocate.

Worel recently said she wants to “experience what visitors do” while she is at the Summer Olympics, such as learning about how the typical spectator navigates the Games.

There is expected to be a contingent from the state in Paris, including the official delegation and those who travel independently. Malena Stevens, the chair of the Summit County Council, is also scheduled to travel to the Summer Olympics at taxpayer expense.

The awarding of the Games of 2034 is predicted to occur on July 24, a date celebrated as Pioneer Day in the state. The Park City area would have an large role in a Games, as was the case in 2002. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park are identified on the map of competition venues. The area would also be crucial to the transportation, security and celebration plans.

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The leader of the Park City Chamber/Bureau plans to travel to Paris for the Summer Olympics to learn about the staging of a Games, highlighting that the work in Utah toward hosting a second Winter Olympics stretches beyond the committee seeking the Games and government institutions.

Jennifer Wesselhoff, the president and CEO of the Chamber/Bureau, is scheduled to visit the French capital July 20-30. The dates cover the International Olympic Committee meetings on the eve of the Games when the 2034 Winter Olympics are widely expected to be awarded to Salt Lake City, as well as the opening days of the Olympics.

Wesselhoff has never attended an Olympics. She will not be part of the official delegation from Utah, but she is coordinating some of the itinerary with the delegation. She is traveling on behalf of the Chamber/Bureau, which is funding the trip.

“First and foremost, this is a learning opportunity. It will be an opportunity to experience the Games, see how communities activate and get an idea of the size, scope and scale of an event of this caliber,” Wesselhoff said in a prepared response to The Park Record.

She said she has arranged to be part of tours designed for delegations traveling to the Games from outside of France and she will participate in what is known as a host city experience program.

The program is meant “to help attendees understand the expected role and responsibilities when hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games and to learn from the city of Paris’s experience in hosting large international sporting events,” she said.

“The program is designed for cities and their partner organizations who will bid or host future Olympic Games to allow them to understand what will be expected from them,” Wesselhoff said.

She described one of the tours as focusing on the legacy of the Games in Paris. It will “showcase improvements made by the city of Paris to make the city more attractive, sustainable, inclusive, sporty and leave a lasting games legacy for the people of Paris,” she said. Other tours will stress “some of the most ambitious projects undertaken by the city of Paris since 2014,” such as in regard to urban planning, mobility and housing.

Wesselhoff, meanwhile, also provided a list of topics she wants to address during the trip. They include:

• “How to maximize the positive aspects of the Games experience while mitigating the potential negative impacts to the communities.”

• “To hear best practices on how to leverage the Games for the benefit of our community over the next ten years.”

• “How small businesses can connect to and benefit from the Games.”

• “To get a better understanding of host communities’ roles and responsibilities.”

• “What can we expect for the economy leading up to the Games, during the Games and after the Games.”

•  “How can we make the Games the most sustainable, net positive Games in 2034?”

• “What do we need to think about today in order to have the infrastructure we need in 10 years?”

Wesselhoff said the trip is also notable as the Park City area, which is crucial to the plans to stage a second Winter Olympics in the state, continues to hold a role in the efforts.

“Many events are planned to take place in the Wasatch Back, and it’s really important that our community has a seat at the table at every stage of the planning process to make sure that our goals and priorities are top of mind,” she said.

Wesselhoff is among those from the Park City area who are traveling to Paris on fact-finding missions. Park City Mayor Nann Worel and Malena Stevens, the chair of the Summit County Council, are also scheduled to be in Paris.

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The International Olympic Committee in July is widely expected to award the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City during meetings in Paris on the eve of the opening of the Summer Olympics in the French capital.

Park City Mayor Nann Worel and Malena Stevens, the chair of the Summit County Council, plan to be there when the announcement is made. They both are planning to remain in France for the first days of the Games as well.

Their trips will ensure City Hall and the County Courthouse are represented on what will be a momentous day for the community with Park City and surrounding Summit County crucial to the overall concept of a second Games in the state, similar to the role they played during the Winter Olympics in 2002.

The two, though, see the trip as having broader goals than the ceremonial roles they may play as the Games are awarded, which is expected on July 24. Worel and Stevens each said they intend to use the trip as an early fact-finding mission with the governments in Park City and Summit County likely to expand their Winter Olympic efforts after the selection of Salt Lake City. Worel and Stevens each have key roles in the relationship between their respective governments and the committee mounting the bid.

Worel is scheduled to leave July 20 and return July 29. She has never attended a Summer Olympics or a Winter Olympics.

“I’m truly honored to be part of the delegation from Utah,” she said, adding that she sees it as “super-important that we are represented in Paris.”

The itinerary while in France had not been set by early in the week. Worel, though, said she wants to “experience what visitors do,” meaning she wants to learn about the how the typical spectator navigates the Games. The mayor said some of the trip costs will be self-funded, while others will be at taxpayers’ expense.

Stevens is traveling from July 20 until July 30. She has also never been to an Olympics. The County Courthouse is funding the trip with taxpayer money.

“What can we learn? What are the things that are working well. … What are the things that are not working,” she said.

Stevens said the Games transit system is of interest to her and she wants to learn about the work with outlying competition venues, such as how the transportation system was designed. She said she wants to visit “more remote” venues. Stevens said she understands the itinerary may include studying the logistical aspects of basketball competitions outside of Paris.

 “How they’re interacting with the main venue?” she said. “How are venues going to coordinate?”

Stevens also sees the trip as an opportunity to ensure Summit County leaders continue to “remain actively engaged in Olympic preparations” and “preserve their seat at the table” regarding Games planning.

There are likely some commonalities between the outlying venues that will be operating during the Summer Olympics in the Paris region and the role Park City would play in a second Games. Transportation is required outside the host city, and the outlying places must define their role amid the wider Olympics, as examples.

Park City officials traveled extensively in the years before the Winter Olympics in 2002, when the community was also a key to the overall Games. Park City officials are not believed to have traveled to an Olympics at the expense of taxpayers since the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

The trip to Paris may be the first in a series of Olympic-related missions for City Hall and the County Courthouse in coming years should the event in 2034 be awarded to the state. There will be two additional Summer Olympics — 2028 in Los Angeles and 2032 in Brisbane, Australia — prior to 2034 and two Winter Olympics before then — 2026 in Milan, Italy, and the Games of 2030, likely in the Provence, the Alps and the Côte d’Azur regions of France. The 2030 event is expected to be awarded to the French bid during the upcoming IOC meetings.

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