Colorado Springs, CO – The board of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) voted this week to not pursue a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, dashing Lake Tahoe’s hopes that the Games could be once again celebrated at the site of the 1960 Games at Squaw Valley and Denver’s desire to host the games for the first time.

““Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the United States is of paramount importance to us,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. “We want to submit a bid that is viable and that adds value to the worldwide Olympic Movement. We believe a 2024 or 2026 bid will give us the best chance of achieving those ends, and therefore will not submit a bid to host the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”

Civic leaders from both California and Nevada in May joined forces to form the Lake Tahoe Winter Games Exploratory Committee from two organizations that were previously exploring bids, the Sacramento based California Winter Games Coalition and the Reno based Reno-Lake Tahoe Winter Games Coalition. Late last month five Olympic athletes added their voices to the organization, including alpine skier Tamara McKinney and freestyle skier Jonny Moseley. Denver officials had also formed a task force to explore the possibility of hosting the Games.

Blackmun indicated that the USOC board also voted this week to establish a working group charged with exploring a potential U.S. bid to host either the 2024 or 2026 Olympic and Paralympic games. That group will make its initial report to the full USOC board at the group’s December meeting.

“”We have always understood that our efforts were contingent upon the USOC’s determination about whether or not to pursue a bid,”  acknowledged Andy Wirth, president and CEO of Squaw Valley. “In light of the decision announced (this week) by the leadership of the USOC, we respect our nation’s Olympic Committee and their decisions, without reservation.”

The Winter Olympic Games were last hosted by an American city in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Atlanta, Georgia hosted the Summer Games in 1996, the last U.S. city to do so.