Salt Lake City gets vote

Winter Olympics

Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Games in a vote announced by the International Olympic Committee president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, yesterday.

IOC members voted in a secret ballot for the American city - which had been trying to win the right to stage the Winter Games for 30 years - in preference to three other candidates: Ostersund in Sweden, Quebec City in Canada and Sion in Switzerland.

Salt Lake City, with an array of high-class sports facilities already built and ready for use, had been the overwhelming favourite in the campaign to win the support of the 92 IOC members eligible to vote.

The candidates spent last week lobbying for last-ditch votes. The final shortlist came from an earlier poll of nine original bids, taken by the IOC's executive committee in January.