Opinion: Patience needed to bring Olympics to Tahoe-Reno
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the July 12, 2011, Reno Gazette-Journal.
There are lots of hurdles that must be jumped before the Reno-Lake Tahoe area wins the right to host the Winter Olympic Games.
Some are out of the hands of local organizers — among them the often complicated politics of the U.S. Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee, as well as their diverse constituencies.
When it comes time to choose the next bidder from the U.S., will the USOC favor Denver, just up the Interstate from the USOC’s Colorado Springs headquarters but also the only city to ever renege after winning the bid to host the Olympics? Will the IOC favor the U.S. again once financial disagreements finally are settled? Or will a U.S. bid for the Summer Games in 2020 (in Chicago, perhaps) derail a U.S. bid for the 2022 games?
Those are the unknowns that face the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition, led by Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki.
The highest hurdle, however, might well be impatience. It already has been a long road for an idea that’s floated around this area since at least the 1980s, and there are many miles still to go.