PARIS (AP) — Salt Lake City being preferred as a shoo-in to host the 2034 Winter Olympics was expected. The surprise was the IOC favoring the French bid for the 2030 edition. The International Olympic Committee is aiming to finalize back-to-back Winter Games hosts next year. The IOC executive board will now enter exclusive talks with Olympic officials in France and the United States. Salt Lake was alone in the 2034 race to bring the games back to Utah which hosted in 2002 Winter Games. A French bid uniting the snowy Alps region and the French Riviera resort Nice was competing with Sweden and Switzerland.
