2026 Winter Olympics - 7 expressions of interest

victorskid

victorskid

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It is now official.
Calgary is one of seven cities, or joint-bidding cities, that have expressed interest in hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday.
Austria's Graz, Swedish capital Stockholm, Sion in Switzerland, Turkey's Erzurum, Japan's Sapporo and a joint bid from Italy's Cortina d'Ampezzo, Milan and Turin are also in the initial process.
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The cities will now enter a dialogue stage until October when the IOC will invite an unspecified number of them to take part in the one-year candidature phase.
The IOC has overhauled the bidding process for Games after a sharp slump in interest from potential cities in recent years, cutting costs for bid cities and slashing the campaign time in half. It has also simplified the seven-year preparation for Games organizers, reducing costs, upping the IOC's contribution and allowing host cities more flexibility in planning for the Olympics and the post-Games use of facilities.
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Hmm...
The 2 before were/will be in Asia so japan seems tough.
NA hasn’t had it in 4 cycles so Calgary might have a shot.
I think turkey will be a tough sell.
Italy has had it more recently while the other 3 haven’t had it in forever.
 
Hmmm. I am having trouble imagining an Olympic village that spans Turin, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The latter is not at all close to the other two locations.
 
BittyBug said:
Hmmm. I am having trouble imagining an Olympic village that spans Turin, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The latter is not at all close to the other two locations.
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Calgary's bid committee is considering staging some of the events in Edmonton and Whistler

Stockholm's bid committee is considering staging some of the events in Latvia and others in Falun and Åre, the latter of which is over 600 km. away from the capital.
 
Boating took place out of Tallinn for the Moscow Olympics, and Vancouver and Whistler couldn't share an Olympic village.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
Boating took place out of Tallinn for the Moscow Olympics, and Vancouver and Whistler couldn't share an Olympic village.
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Eys, spreading the events out geographically is nothing new, but some of these proposals would take the practice to a degree not previously seen.
 
The IOC is having to get a lot more flexible in its thinking, and more reasonable in its demands to potential host cities. So we should see some of these more unusual 2026 proposals being seriously considered, particularly the shared-geography/regional bids. The IOC ended up with essentially their disaster choice scenario for 2022 (Beijing vs Almaty) when the other, better European candidate cities pulled out because public attitude their toward the IOC was to take its Winter Olympics and stuff it. It is true that spreading the geography complicates the logistics tremendously and splits up a centralized mass of "Olympic Spirit" into smaller multiple foci.
 
My hope is that Olys are returned to host cities where human rights (for all) aren't a joke.. Sochi, Beijing, PyeongChang... The Olys seemed to have cashed in on what they are about. So Calgary or back to some Western Euro cities.

Having said this I dont expect some people to understand my statement. It takes walking in someone else's shoes to understand the impact.

Im still waiting for Lake Tahoe to bid and be awarded. That would be amazing.
 
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I don't know: I think once you break up the "Olympic experience" of having all of the athletes in the same village within close proximity, does it really matter if the rest of the events are spread out, if everyone who wants to can make it to the Opening and Closing ceremonies? It certainly spreads out the burden and the need to build city-specific venues, although it was great that for Sochi, they made a bunch of the venues transportable.

Vancouver had two medal ceremony venues, and through a video feed, went back and forth between Whistler and Vancouver. While it was odd the first time to give an ovation to a screen, that oddness faded quickly in the moment, and it was a bit of a thrill to share an experience with people who were elsewhere, like when they show the gatherings all throughout GB where crowds are watching the closing Prom concert on big screens.
 
Frau Muller said:
Harbin and Beijing are pretty far apart afaik.
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Having lived in Beijing for many years, I can confirm they are very far apart...like 1200 km. But I'm not sure what this comment has to do with anything. If you are thinking about the 2022 Olympics, Harbin is not part of it. All three venue clusters for 2022 are within the greater Beijing region and will be linked by high speed rail.
 
Calgary has financing problems, and I don't think they'll make it to the end. The IOC made a notable point of mentioning that the US planned on bidding for 2030, all while denying that they have any intention of another double-awarding like they did with the Summer 2024 & 2028 Games when they had Paris and LA as their last candidates standing.

Frankly, I expect the IOC to do everything within their power to 1) avoid a 3rd Asian Winter Olympics, and 2) keep it in Europe. I see Sion and Graz as the leading candidates, with Stockholm and the Italian bid as back-ups should either the Swiss or Austrian bids fall at the hand of losing public referendums.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
I think once you break up the "Olympic experience" of having all of the athletes in the same village within close proximity, does it really matter if the rest of the events are spread out, if everyone who wants to can make it to the Opening and Closing ceremonies?
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Focusing just on the athletes, the most common comment about the Olympics that athletes seem to make is about the amazing experience of meeting and interacting with high-level athletes from so many other sports on a daily basis in the village. They eat together, share dorms, pass each other going to and fro and party together. If the event can't have a shared village to offer this type of community, I think it would be a big loss to athletes.
 
While the Swedish olympic committee wants it, Stockholm City actually doesn't, the current ruling political party is in favour, but the other parties are not, which is what caused the 2022 bid to be withdrawn. I doubt that'll change for 2026.
 
Calgary's financial struggles will be solved in 2019 when Trudeau and his gang are voted out. I think Calgary would make a great host city... they already have much of the infrastructure in place and there is an appetite to have a new arena, so that would tie in nicely as a legacy of the games. The Saddledome is a relic by most standards, so it would go together well. I think they'll have a decent shot at hosting it...
 
allezfred said:
Was there a human rights issue in PyeongChang? :confused:
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Korea is not known for leaving gay people alone. They have a culture of gay conversion therapy and very antigay sentiment. Dont expect to see same sex unions in korea any time soon. Most gay people end up marrying opposite sex partners.

As a gay man and under the "spirit" of the olympics I shouldn't have to travel and compete in a country where my fellow gay brothers and sisters are undergoing therapy and conversion for immutable traits. This is something that rarely even crosses the minds of straight people because they havent walked the shoes.

Also on top of that even Gus Kenworthy (and Lisa Vanderpump) had to rescue and adopt dogs there...becaue you know there is a 90% chance they will end up on your menu and plate. That is once they are released from the cage wires wrapped around their bodies.
 
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AngieNikodinovLove said:
Korea is not known for leaving gay people alone. They have a culture of gay conversion therapy and very antigay sentiment. Dont expect to see same sex unions in korea any time soon. Most gay people end up marrying opposite sex partners.

As a gay man and under the "spirit" of the olympics I shouldn't have to travel and compete in a country where my fellow gay brothers and sisters are undergoing therapy and conversion for immutable traits. This is something that rarely even crosses the minds of straight people because they havent walked the shoes.
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Newsflash: Most countries in the world don't have a ban on conversion therapy. Most states in the U.S. don't have a ban on conversion therapy. Not sure why you are singling out Korea here as this literally was never an issue that was brought up. In fact, a number of out skaters competed in PyeongChang and you are the first person I have heard make a statement like this. :confused:

AngieNikodinovLove said:
Also on top of that even Gus Kenworthy (and Lisa Vanderpump) had to rescue and adopt dogs there...becaue you know there is a 90% chance they will end up on your menu and plate. That is once they are released from the cage wires wrapped around their bodies.
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Dogs aren't humans though. :shuffle:
 
Vagabond said:
On the other hand, the equestrian events in 2008 were held in Hong Kong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_at_the_2008_Summer_Olympics
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That was a very special situation. Originally the Beijing Olympic Committee planned to build a new equestrian facility just outside Beijing for the Olympics. But it was pointed out that due to equine disease conditions in China that could not be entirely mitigated, many countries that would be entered into the Olympics, did not want to bring their horses in due to risk, and also did not want to deal with trouble getting them back through quarantine upon return to their home countries. So the higher powers decided that Hong Kong would be the venue for equestrian, since it has a long-standing and safe set-up for racing and for international equestrian events. Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games in 2001, but the decision to move the equestrian events was not made until 2005, just 3 years before the event. Announcement: https://www.olympic.org/news/beijing-2008-equestrian-events-moved-to-hong-kong

Certainly this is not any parallel to the current 2026 proposals that are purposely using a spread-geography plan, and shouldn't be counted as some sort of precedent.
 
I'd rule Asia out. Turkey would be a tough sell. Sion is so small but they have applied a few times and done fairly well so they may be strongly considered.

Nordic cities have backed out in the past over costs. Sweden has recently slashed Olympic funding as apparently the government funding has dried up. 2x world champ / 2x Olympic medalist Nik Edin just announced his #2 world ranked curling team just got stripped of its $150K (US) funding for training and travel to competitions. Not results based. Just no Olympic investment. I'm highly skeptical of their sincerity as a result.

Calgary I think will go hard after the bid. It's the inertia they need to attract funding to build a new arena and keep their NHL hockey franchise. The arena issue has been at an impasse for years so they need a breakthrough.

I see CAN, SUI and ITA being the real 3 contenders.
 
Rock2 said:
Calgary I think will go hard after the bid. It's the inertia they need to attract funding to build a new arena and keep their NHL hockey franchise. The arena issue has been at an impasse for years so they need a breakthrough.
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I wouldn’t be so sure of that. As much as Albertans would love to have another Olympics, we are going through difficult political and economic times. There is a lot of concern about the cost and many people think now is not a good time to be spending money on an Olympics.
 
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