The International Olympic Committee cited concerns over climate change Friday for its wish to pick two Winter Olympics hosts in July, putting Salt Lake City quickly into play for the 2034 edition.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the Olympic body aims to pick hosts for the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games at its meeting on the eve of the Paris Games next year.
Sweden, Switzerland and France have been working on possible bids for the 2030 edition, and Salt Lake City officials have long targeted 2034. That would avoid the United States hosting back-to-back Olympics after the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Picking Salt Lake City a decade in advance would give the IOC a trusted partner amid changing weather patterns and could keep together people who have worked toward bringing the Olympics back to the city that hosted the 2002 Games.
The double award proposal by the Bach-chaired IOC executive board must get approval by the full membership at their annual meeting that opens Sunday. That should be a formality.
The IOC has declining options for Winter Games hosts with Bach suggesting only 15 national Olympic committees across three continents meet the criteria: that they have at least 80% of existing venues for snow sports and a "climate-reliable" outlook to host snow events in future decades.
By 2040, only 10 nations would be able to host the Olympics' snow sports, according to preliminary results of studies by the IOC's future host commission for Winter Games.
"We need to address very quickly this dramatic impact of climate change on winter sport," Bach said.
A likely longer-term project for the IOC is deciding on a rotation policy of a small pool of regular Winter Games hosts.
The next deadline for the 2030 and 2034 Olympics will come Nov. 28-Dec. 1 at a board meeting in Paris. A single preferred candidate for each is expected to be chosen and then would enter into exclusive negotiations with the IOC.
That is the new process for selecting Olympic host cities and regions, avoiding the once-traditional campaigns that were at risk of vote-buying schemes.
The Japanese city of Sapporo, which hosted the 1972 Winter Games, was once favored for the 2030 edition. That bid was dropped this week in the fallout from criminal investigations and convictions for corruption tied to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Last year's Beijing Games were the first Winter Olympics to use virtually 100% artificial snow by deploying more than 100 snow generators and 300 snow-making guns to cover the ski slopes.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.