The IOC said Thursday it signed its long-time United States broadcast partner to a $3 billion renewed deal for the 2034 Salt Lake City Olympics and the 2036 Summer Games.

The International Olympic Committee’s statement said the agreement elevates Comcast NBCUniversal to being a strategic partner instead of just a media rights holder, promising “innovative joint strategic initiatives and projects” and involving the streaming platform Peacock.

The IOC said it would benefit from “Comcast’s investment in relevant and innovative start-ups” in a deal that was surprisingly announced in the final weeks of Thomas Bach’s leadership of the Olympic body.

The 2036 host has yet to be decided with interest shown by Olympic officials in countries including India, Qatar, Turkey, Hungary and Indonesia.

NBC signed its most recent Olympic rights deal in 2014 covering each Summer Games and Winter Games through 2032. That was valued at $7.75 billion and includes the next Summer Games in 2028 in Los Angeles.

NBC was widely seen to have a good and profitable 2024 Paris Olympics, with roving correspondent Snoop Dogg proving to be a huge hit with audiences at home and fans in the city.

The broadcaster said its coverage from Paris reached 67 million total viewers on average daily across all platforms.

That NBC deal done 11 years ago was a major decision early in Bach’s IOC presidency that secured the financial future of the Olympic body.

The new U.S. rights deal has been sealed just one week before Bach’s successor is to be elected at an IOC meeting in Greece, on March 20.

“The media landscape is evolving rapidly and, by partnering with one of the world’s leading media and technology companies, we will ensure that fans in the United States are able to experience the Olympic Games like never before,” Bach said in the statement.

NBC has broadcast every Summer Olympics since 1988 and every Winter Games since 2002 in Salt Lake City — all the games since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. A previous renewal in 2011 secured each games from 2014 through 2020 for $4.38 billion.

“It is our honor to continue to bring the full power of our company’s expertise in creating and distributing content that connects with Americans,” Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said, “as well as to begin to provide even more innovative technological support and solutions to the IOC and its stakeholders in areas that benefit athletes and the many people dedicated to organizing the Olympic Games around the world.”

Four days of racing will begin on Thanksgiving Day. The women will race slalom and giant slalom, which happen to be the best events for Colorado native Mikaela Shiffrin, the winningest World Cup racer in history. The men will race giant slalom and super-G.

Copper Mountain has hosted World Cup racing only three times. In 1976, the men and women raced slalom and giant slalom three weeks after the Innsbruck Winter Olympics, where Germany’s Rosi Mittermaier won three medals. Mittermaier then won both women’s races at Copper, which subsequently named the slope where she competed “Rosi’s Run,” a name it still holds.

On two other occasions, Copper Mountain stepped in to host November women’s slalom and giant slalom World Cup races after resorts that had been scheduled to host those races lacked suitable snow conditions for racing. In 1999, Copper took races that had been scheduled for Park City, Utah. Two years later, it stepped in for Aspen.

The week following the Copper Mountain races, the men will race at Beaver Creek, which has been a regular stop for men’s downhill, super-G and giant slalom since 1997.

It’s rare for the World Cup to schedule men’s and women’s races over four days at the same venue. Women’s giant slalom and slalom races normally are held Thanksgiving weekend in Killington, Vt., but that resort is replacing a lift that serves the race venue. The races are expected to return to Killington in 2026, a two-hour drive from Burke Mountain Academy, where Shiffrin went to high school.

“Although I’ll miss racing at Killington this Thanksgiving, I am so excited that World Cup ski racing is coming to Copper Mountain for men and women,” Shiffrin said in a news release. “Athletes from all around the globe come to Copper early in the season especially, and in springtime, to get the best training in the world and best preparation for World Cup racing. It’s so exciting to see Copper as a true World Cup race venue, and I’m particularly excited because it’s so close to home. I can sleep in my own bed, and my community can come and experience it.”

While World Cup racing is rare for Copper Mountain, many elite racers are very familiar with the venue. Since 2011, Copper Mountain has partnered with the U.S. Ski Team to provide preseason race training at the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center when most resorts around the world don’t have temperatures and snowmaking equipment capable of providing full-on downhill tracks. Some other nations also train at that venue before the downhill season starts.

Copper also hosts the U.S. Grand Prix for elite halfpipe competitors annually.

“Hosting an alpine World Cup event at Copper is a natural fit for us,” said Dustin Lyman, Copper Mountain president and general manager. “We are recognized as ‘the athlete’s mountain,’ in part because the world’s elite snow sports athletes train and compete on our venues. Now, we’re excited to showcase our exceptional racing venue on the world stage.”

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