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High Hopes: A bid for Reno/Tahoe to host the 2022 Winter Olympics is in the works. Squaw Valley hosted the 1960 Games, pictured here. Courtesy of Petit Gilwee |
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The Olympics came to Tahoe 50 years ago. Will they come back?
By Julie BrownPublished: January 16, 2010
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Fifty years ago, my grandparents watched some of the best athletes in the world compete in the ski jump event that was part of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games at Squaw Valley. Standing along the fence near the bottom of the jump, they gazed upwards as the skiers soared above them. In the distance, cheers erupted from Blythe Arena where the U.S. Hockey Team competed for the gold medal. For them, attending the Olympics was that once-in-a-lifetime experience they still talk about.
“I think Frank and I both had dreamed of going to see an Olympics, but never had the opportunity,” my grandmother, Jackie Murar, told me. “And here it was at our doorstep.”
Today, as Squaw Valley celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1960 Winter Olympics, a group of determined individuals intend to bring the games back to the region — a daunting task, but one they say is worthwhile not only for the excitement surrounding the Olympics, but for the legacy and investment such an event will bring to the area. The Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition is focused on positioning themselves for the 2022 Winter Olympic bid cycle. The coalition had intended to submit a bid for the 2018 Winter Games, but after the attempted bid for the 2016 Summer Games in Chicago failed, the United States Olympic Committee blocked their efforts.
“Our coalition obviously wants to stay in this for the long haul,” said Executive Director Jon Killoran, the coalition’s sole full-time staff member. “We ultimately want to bid for an Olympic Winter Games, and we’ll continue to prepare ourselves. When the opportunity arises, we’ll be ready to move forward.”
Activity directly related to a 2022 bid won’t pick up for a few more years, Killoran said. However, it’s critical that the coalition keep their foot in the door and their momentum moving forward so Reno Tahoe will be ready and competitive. This past fall, the coalition sent delegations to the USOC summit in Chicago and to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the 2016 Olympic vote, where the group had the opportunity to meet with some of the highest levels of leadership in the Olympic movement. Pursuing networking opportunities with the sporting world, recruiting ambassadors for the Reno/Tahoe area, and discovering opportunities to promote the region dominate the coalition’s agenda today.
In the meantime, the group is also talking to local ski resorts and community leaders about forming a regional sports commission that would bring major sporting events to the area in the near future. “[A Sports Commission] has a lot more shorter-term benefits in establishing the Reno/Tahoe area as a place for sports and all sorts of competitions,” said Steve Teshara, executive director of the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association. “That’s really important to positioning our area, both for the immediate future and as well as for the longer term.”
What a Reno/Tahoe Olympics Could Look Like
There’s no question that the Olympics have evolved dramatically since 1960. Budgets are now in the billions instead of the millions. Squaw Valley hosted 665 athletes in 1960, according to local historian Dave Antonucci. Vancouver’s games this year will host a projected 5,500 athletes. While the Squaw games were the first ever to be televised, the International Olympic Committee estimates that some 3 billion people worldwide will tune in to the Vancouver games.
Hosting an Olympic Games would have a serious impact on Tahoe —perhaps changing the region forever. But advocates of a Reno/Tahoe Winter Olympics say that the games, by attracting investment from a variety of avenues, are a catalyst for opportunity. The Olympics could leverage the funding for the projects many want to see in the area, like an improved rail transit system for passengers traveling between San Francisco and Reno, or a new public light-rail system in downtown Reno.
“I can’t think of anything more than the Olympic Games that would facilitate and accelerate the execution of a project like that,” Killoran said. “It’s a component [of the Olympics] that becomes a legacy.”
Tahoe, as a bid candidate, has a lot going for it in the eyes of the International Olympic Committee, said Killoran. Not only are we an international destination that has striking geographical features, but we’ve already hosted a successful Olympic Games that is remembered fondly by many voting members of the IOC. The zone encompassing the Vancouver Olympics stretches over 120 kilometers; comparably, Reno/Tahoe is a very compact zone. With more than enough ski resorts in the area, an international airport, 30,000 available hotel rooms in Reno alone, and a huge pool of potential ticket buyers within a drive’s distance away, a Reno/Tahoe Olympic bid already has many innate strengths that are appealing to the International Olympic Committee.
“Mother Nature [has] blessed us with a very profound capability to host a winter games,” said Brian Krolicki, lieutenant governor of Nevada and chair of the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition board.
Hosting the games would also reflect the spirit of Olympism already established in the area — seen in part through the long list of local athletes who have competed in games over the years. The Squaw Valley Ski Team alone has seen 54 of their athletes advance to the U.S. Ski Team.
“I think [the Olympics] would bring these ideals of brotherhood and fraternity, sportsmanship, and friendly competition to the area,” said Nancy Cushing, CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Corp, and another Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition board member.
For Stacey Cook, a Truckee local who competed in the women’s downhill and giant slalom events at the 2006 Torino Winter Games, competing in an Olympics hosted in her hometown would be unreal. While she acknowledged that 2022 is probably too far away for her own Olympic career, Cook said that a Reno/Tahoe games would be a huge motivation and goal for all the younger athletes in the region to strive for.
“I think that the possibility of showing the world what Tahoe is about is definitely there,” Cook said. “[The Olympics] are the world getting a chance to see our life, how we live, and what we believe and do for a living.”
Olympic Challenges
As with all things, there are many aspects of a Reno/Tahoe bid that need addressing — funding, for one. The coalition envisions a financial plan similar to the one Salt Lake City used for their Winter Olympics in 2002. Utah’s games were funded primarily through three sources: broadcast rights, corporate sponsorship, and the reallocation of existing tax dollars towards projects needed for the Olympics. Ticket revenues came in later as a profit-generating component. “It is our hope and design to make a profit,” Krolicki said.
Venues would be another challenge facing a Reno Tahoe bid. Olympic requirements mandate that the biathalon and cross-country course be located below 5,800 feet in elevation — lower than any of the major local Nordic ski areas. The men’s downhill course, as well, must feature a 2,800-foot drop on the course, something no ski resort in the area features on any single run. A ski jump location and a bobsled/luge run are two other events where location remains to be determined.
“[Olympic requirements] are very, very specific,” Killoran said. “And we’re working with our other resorts to make sure, again, that we find the best possible solution for all of the events.” Killoran said that Heavenly Ski Resort has been the most talked about regarding the location of a men’s downhill ski course, although discussions remain abstract and nothing has been set in stone.
The Environment: A Gain or Loss?
Improved infrastructure may be one benefit to hosting an Olympic Games, but what about the environment and Lake Tahoe’s famously crystal blue waters? With the International Olympic Committee’s increased awareness about the games’ responsibility and stewardship of the environment — all things green being the third component of Olympism — it’s doubtful any host city, especially one as naturally sensitive as ours, would receive the bid without a substantial plan to protect and enhance its local environment.
“We’ve said from the start, the only way we move forward with a bid is if it’s economically, environmentally and ethically sound,” Killoran said. “And if it’s not that, then we won’t bid … but we’re very confident that we can meet those goals.”
Dialogue between the coalition and environmental groups has started but remains conceptual. The League to Save Lake Tahoe, which acknowledges that hosting such an event is “one of the greatest challenges any community can face,” said they want to work collaboratively with the coalition. However, the environmental watchdog group has serious concerns. Additional parking lots and road construction, two inevitable projects needed for the games, are some of the leading causes for Lake Tahoe’s declining clarity. Furthermore, the league is concerned that funds used to restore lake clarity would be redirected towards infrastructure projects associated with the games.
“The excitement and enterprise of the games and its visitors are brief,” the League’s statement reads. “The amount of resources required to put them on, however, is enormous and the environmental effects are often permanent.”
What Are the Odds?
2022 is more than a decade away. The tough international competition Reno/Tahoe will face in the bid process makes things even more uncertain. But Alex Cushing beat the odds 50 years ago, so who’s to say it won’t happen again?
“It was the power of the idea that changed these people’s minds,” said Nancy Cushing about her late husband’s ambitious endeavor to convince the IOC to host the Olympics at Squaw Valley. “It’s not always about the money and influence and stuff like that. Sometimes, it’s about the idea. And in that case, it worked.”
The coalition is optimistic that the Winter Olympics will return to Tahoe. “We have a good story to tell, and we’ve been telling it,” said Jim Hartley, vice chair of the coalition’s board. But even so, coalition leaders want to make sure that what they do today provides lasting benefits to the region.
“The best we can do is position ourselves the best way possible to achieve success,” Killoran said. “But right up until that last vote total, there’s no guarantee of anything.”
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