Salt Lake City submits its final bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympics... with Utah capital the IOC's preferred candidate over two decades after welcoming the games in 2002

Salt Lake City has officially submitted its application file to host the 2034 Winter Olympics.

The file was approved by the SLC-UT governing board on February 22. The city's bid to house the games comes as it was dubbed the International Olympic Committee's preferred and only candidate for the event.

On Thursday, an official bid submission ceremony was held virtually in Salt Lake City with Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Utah Governor Spencer Cox.

'It's official – we just submitted our bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympic and Paralympic games to the International Olympics Committee,' Cox wrote on X.

'Thank you to everyone who worked hard to get us to this point. Utah is the state of sport and we look forward to bringing the Olympics back to the Beehive State!'

On Thursday, Salt Lake City submitted its official bid file to host the 2034 Winter Olympics 

If approved, the city will host the games six years after the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles 

Salt Lake City - Utah Committee (SLC-UT) for the Games CEO Fraser Bullock referred to the bid as a 'monumental step.'

Should the city get the green light to host, it will be their first Winter Olympics since 2002. It would also come six years after the Summer Olympics returns Stateside in Los Angeles.

While confident that the bid will get the votes required, American IOC member and IOC Vice President Anita DeFrantz cautioned that 'It's not quite a done deal.'

To add to the amount of work left to do, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee chair Gene Sykes chimed in after joining the ceremony. He said the IOC officials are 'Not satisfied but thrilled to have a partnership with [the SLC-UT] team.'

The English version of the main file contains two maps, 14 tables, and 30,947 words. Meanwhile, the detailed annex spans 343 pages, containing six maps, 18 studies and reports, 26 site plans, and 52 spreadsheets.

The IOC Future Host Commission team will conduct site evaluations in Utah from April 9 to 13 

Completed documents for Salt Lake City and the 2030 games in the French Alps were due on Thursday. Both applications were selected as preferred candidates by the IOC's Executive Board in November - with the remaining steps considered due diligence ahead of getting the stamp of approval in July.

The IOC's Future Host Commission team is scheduled to conduct site evaluations in Utah from April 9 to 13. The Executive Board will then likely recommend the bid for full membership during its quarterly meeting from June 12-14.

If recommended, the SLC-UT bid can be presented to the entire voting IOC membership in the second half of June. The final presentation and IOC membership election is expected on July 24 during the Summer Olympics in Paris. The host contract will be signed immediately after.

The SLC-UT has requested a July 24 election to parlay it with Pioneer Day Celebrations in Utah.