History

The Reno Tahoe region has been involved in a number of bid efforts including the 1955 bid developed by Alex Cushing of Squaw Valley USA, a bid that resulted in the awarding of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games to Squaw Valley, California. The award was considered a major upset defeating Innsbruck, Austria in one of the closest votes in IOC history. For the first time since 1932, an Olympic Winter Games was to be staged in the United States. The Reno Tahoe Olympic legacy had begun.

The Winter Olympic Games “sports programme” and the bid process of the USOC have changed appreciably since the last bid efforts developed in Reno in the 1980's and early 1990's. Going up against the formidable and omnipresent efforts of Salt Lake City, and the upstart efforts of Anchorage, Reno was defeated for the U.S. Candidate City designation in both 1987 and 1989.

The Reno Tahoe Winter Olympic Games bid efforts began in the 1980's with the development of the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Organizing Committee, Inc. Incorporated as a Nevada non-profit corporation by Bruce Bogaert, a Nevada assemblyman, and Brad Littlefield, a South Lake Tahoe casino executive, the RTWGOC spearheaded the efforts to build a regional interest in returning the Olympics to the Sierras. During the same period of time, Bogaert wrote the enabling legislation to establish the Nevada Commission on Sports, incorporating the mandates of a governor's council on physical fitness and sports and a statewide sport tourism commission. The Nevada Commission on Sports was officially established as a state commission in the legislative session of 1989.

As is the case with most unsuccessful bid efforts, the bid committee tended to lose support over time through the attrition of their ranks and the loss of interest of a number of principals of the bid effort. The most recent effort to return the Games to Reno Tahoe was led by Dick Reynolds, a Vice President and Investment Officer at Wachovia Securities. Enlisting a veritable who's who of Reno businesspeople and government officials, Reynolds had built a team capable of taking Reno Tahoe to the Bid City level. Unfortunately, the efforts to win the U.S. Candidate City designation fell short when the USOC chose Salt Lake City over both Anchorage and Reno for both 1998 and 2002.

In 1999, Jim Vanden Heuvel, Al Kramer and David Youngberg met with Nevada's newly elected governor Kenny Guinn in an effort to reactivate the Nevada Commission on Sports. Guinn made new appointments to the NCOS in 2000 and discussions ensued concerning a new bid effort supported by the NCOS. In 2001, the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition was established as a separate non-profit corporation spearheading the bid efforts independent of - but with the full support of - the NCOS. The Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition is the current organization responsible for developing the bid strategy and the support team capable of effectively competing for a 2018 Winter Olympic Games award. Jon Killoran leads the Coalition's day-to-day operations along with the leadership of newly-elected Chair Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki of Nevada.