The host city for the 2026 Winter Olympics is up for grabs and a number of countries are considering entering a bid but the IOC says it is clear that it wants a traditional, winter city to host the games.
The Winter Olympics have just wrapped up in PyeongChang and in a post-games press conference, IOC President, Thomas Bach said that the IOC wants a traditional winter destination to play host to the games in 2026.
“We, in the IOC, have made it very clear that in 2026, we would like to go back to a traditional winter sport destination. We had now three consecutive Olympic Winter Games in new winter sport destinations but now we feel it’s time to nurture the roots of winter sports and this is why we are determined to have the Olympic Winter Games in 2026 in a traditional winter sport destination. Whether it is in the Americas or in Europe or in Asia, it doesn’t matter,” said Bach.
Many believe Calgary will be a front runner if the city enters a bid and Mayor Naheed Nenshi was part of a delegation from the city that went to South Korea for the games.
“We’ve done a ton of work and we’re very confident we could host an excellent games,” said Nenshi in an interview with CTV News on February 13th.
Canada is among four countries that are hoping to make a pitch to host the games.
The venues in Calgary that were left after the 1988 Olympics still meet IOC standards and officials have said that the Saddledome is sufficient for hockey and figure skating events.
City council is expected to make a decision by the end of March on whether or not to bid for the Olympics in 2026.
The bid would cost $30 million and that funding would be shared by all three levels of government if approved.
It is estimated that it would cost about $4.6 billion to host the games in Calgary and the IOC would contribute about $925 million to the pot.
The IOC’s bidding process starts in September.
