Salt Lake City’s first and only female mayor died on Sunday. Deedee Corradini’s legacy includes helping bring the Olympics to Utah in 2002 and advocating for women’s ski jumping in the games.
Deedee Corradini served two terms as Salt Lake City’s mayor from 1992-2000. It was during that time she played a vital role in helping bring the 2002 Winter Olympic games to Salt Lake. Corradini talked to KUER in 2012 about the moment in 1995 when then International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch announced the host city for the 2002 games.
“When President Samaranch came in and all he did was say ‘salt…’ and we exploded! We jumped on tables and chairs, we had a little girl with us that hoped to be an ice skater in 2002. It was an adrenaline rush unlike anything I’ve ever had in my life,” said Corradini.
During her tenure as mayor, Corradini also advocated for the construction of a new minor-league baseball stadium and led efforts to renovate Salt Lake City International Airport. Later in her life, she spent a decade of the board of Women’s Ski Jumping USA and helped get the sport included in the Olympic games last year. Corradini died over the weekend at her home in Park City after a 6 month fight against a form of lung cancer not linked to smoking. She was 70.