What kind of Olympic hosts will the LDS Church and other Utah faiths be the second time around?

If the 2002 Winter Olympics were a “coming-of-age party” on the world stage for Utah and Mormonism, the Beehive State’s 2034 Games may be like greeting friends you haven’t seen since high school and checking out how they’ve matured.

Will there still be perky but patient multilingual volunteers at every venue who served missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Will all the buses and trains still run on time? Will you still be able to get a beer or a margarita — Gallivan Center, remember, morphed into Bud World — as easily as you did in 2002? Will there still be breakdancing in those wide streets?

“Salt Lake is where nice is being slathered on top of nice, and the result is the nicest ever. It’s the omphalos of sweetness and lite,” Washington Post columnist Hank Stuever wrote at the time. “...It’s a genuine charm, given the cheesy Potemkin construct of modern Olympiads.”

Before 2002, locals feared “the approaching wave of Utah stereotypes, bracing … for Mormon jokes and the inevitable stupid questions,” Stuever wrote, “recommending the only known antidote: Kill them with kindness.”

In the past two decades, though, Latter-day Saints have endured many more caricatures of their faith (the Tony-winning “Book of Mormon” musical springs to mind), exposés of the church’s vast wealth, accounts of sensational murders on TV, and verbal assaults on Mitt Romney — Utah’s 2002 Olympic czar-turned-presidential-nominee-turned-U.S. senator-turned-Donald-Trump-nemesis.

Salt Lake City is now more religiously and ethnically diverse, more inclusive and more sophisticated. But has it also become more cynical and more divided like so much of the nation? And what part, if any, will the Vatican of Mormonism play when the world returns?

“We stand ready to support the 2034 Olympic Games in welcoming athletes, volunteers and visitors from around the world,” wrote the global faith’s governing First Presidency after Utah secured the bid. “The church is committed to efforts that make Salt Lake a host city that embodies values of service, cooperation and mutual respect. As the home of the international headquarters of the church, we will work with organizers at both local and international levels to welcome the world as 2034 draws near.”

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What kind of Olympic hosts will the LDS Church and other Utah faiths be the second time around?

What kind of Olympic hosts will the LDS Church and other Utah faiths be the second time around?

What kind of Olympic hosts will the LDS Church and other Utah faiths be the second time around?

What kind of Olympic hosts will the LDS Church and other Utah faiths be the second time around?

What kind of Olympic hosts will the LDS Church and other Utah faiths be the second time around?