Mayor Ryan Dickey will lead a City Hall delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy in February, the municipal government said on Wednesday.
Park City Councilor Tana Toly and acting City Manager Jodi Emery are also expected to travel to the Games. The three will participate in an observers program organized by the International Olympic Committee.
City Hall said the delegation will base itself in Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the Games’ mountain venues. The travelers will “focus on mountain operations, logistics, security, and competition delivery. The program includes structured site visits, workshops, and behind-the-scenes engagement with Olympic organizers and host-community counterparts,” according to the municipal government.
The information released this week indicates Toly “will be focused on local benefits, regional partnerships, and economic vibrancy” while Emery “will focus on operational readiness, community engagement, and coordination of City services.”
The municipal government did not include details such as the projected cost, the funding mechanism and the length of the trip.
The Games in Italy are the first Winter Olympics since Salt Lake City was awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics. It was expected that City Hall would send a delegation to Italy, but the travelers were not known until the announcement.
Another member of the City Council, Bill Ciraco, plans to travel to Italy for the Games as a private citizen and is not part of the delegation from City Hall. He will self-fund the trip.
Ciraco said he hopes to visit Milan and the mountain venues of Cortina d’Ampezzo and Bormio. The first-term city councilor booked the trip months ago. Ciraco has never been to a Winter Olympics or a Summer Olympics. He has said he wants to learn about transportation between the communities where competitions are held, the security deployment and the infrastructure used during the Games. Ciraco has said he wants the trip to generate ideas that could be replicated in Park City in 2034, along with observations of what the community should avoid.
The trip to Italy will be the second municipal outing to a Games linked to the preparations for 2034. Nann Worel, the mayor at the time, traveled to Paris for the Summer Olympics in 2024. The International Olympic Committee awarded the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City on the eve of the Summer Olympics in Paris. Transportation systems were among the topics she studied while in France.
The Park City area is crucial to the overall Games in 2034, as was the case during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park are identified as competitor venues. The community will also play a critical role in the transportation, security and celebration plans.
The Games in Italy are one of two opportunities for Park City officials to study a Winter Olympics before 2034, with the other being the Games of 2030 in France. There will also be two Summer Olympics before 2034, in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane, Australia, in 2032.
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