Salt Lake City receives green light from USOC to bid for future Winter Games.

Salt Lake City got the green light to bid for the Winter Olympics — most likely for 2030 — in an attempt to bring the Games back to the city that hosted in 2002 and provided the backdrop for the U.S. winter team's ascendance into an international powerhouse.

The U.S. Olympic Committee said Friday it was selecting Utah's capital, which stood out as a predictable, slam-dunk pick in a process that also included Denver and Reno, Nev.

With venues still in place — some of them upgraded — from the 2002 Games, Salt Lake claims it can host again at a lower cost than other candidates, which aligns with the International Olympic Committee's new blueprint for the Games.

It almost is a certain bet the bid will be for 2030 although the USOC left open the possibility of other dates. There are only two bidders for 2026 — from Sweden and Italy, after voters in Calgary, Alberta, rejected a proposed bid.

Sarah Hirshland, the USOC’s CEO, said Denver and Salt Lake City both presented strong cases, but that the board determined Utah was the better choice because of the existing venues, their proximity to each other, the city's experience hosting the games and widespread community and political support.

After never surpassing 13 medals at a Winter Games, the U.S. used home-turf advantage, an influx of new sports and the emotion of the recent Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to capture 34 over three weeks in Utah.

In the aftermath, Park City and other mountain towns near Salt Lake City preserved and improved upon many of the venues, and continued hosting key international events. The freestyle world championships will be held in Park City in February.

Utah organizers say they could host the games for $1.35 billion, some $50 billion less than it cost in Russia for the 2014 Sochi Games, which are the most expensive games and stood out as a blaring warning signal that the IOC needed to streamline its bloated Olympic structure.

The exorbitant costs have changed the dynamic of Olympic bidding. In 2002, cities were trying to bribe IOC officials to award them the Olympics. These days, the IOC finds itself wanting for bidders.

The IOC normally awards Olympics seven years before they are scheduled although that calendar has been in flux because so many cities have dropped out.

Last year, the IOC handed out the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games at the same time because there were only two cities left in what began as a much bigger contest for 2024. Paris will host 2024, Los Angeles will host 2028 and, if Salt Lake wins 2030, it would mark the first time since the IOC began staggering the Games two years apart, in 1994, that the same country has hosted back-toback.