SWITZERLAND

IOC holds 134th session with election of 2026 Winter Olympics host on agenda

June 24, 2019

The 134th International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Lausanne will select the host city for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. There are just two contenders, Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy and Stockholm-Åre in Sweden, a worry for the IOC.

Sion, Graz, Sapporo and Calgary dropped out, and Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo and Stockholm-Åre, had to struggle for political support. The Stockholm 2026 campaign ran into a wall because of opposition to taxpayer funding, but business leaders have come forward with a rescue – assurances that the hosting will be self-funding. The Italian bid ran into the same kind of opposition, but recent reports from Italy suggest assurances will be forthcoming in time for the June meeting.

The cost of hosting any Olympics is prone to increase beyond the host city’s control. Britain’s Independent points out that not so long ago there were 11 cities bidding to host the 2004 Olympics, which was eventually won by Athens; yet only two cities bid to host the 2022 Winter Games, and only two are now left in the running for 2026.

The Winter Olympics are particularly niche, according to the newspaper, because not many major cities are in close proximity to a mountain range with reliable snowfall, even fewer have available the highly specialized facilities for winter sports and the cost of building them is expensive.

#23047 Published: March 14, 2019