2026 Winter Olympics

XXV Olympic Winter Games

Host city	,
Winter:
<  Beijing 2022
Summer:
<  Paris 2024 Los Angeles 2028  >

The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXV Olympic Winter Games, is a sports event to be organized in a city designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The host city will be selected at the 133rd IOC Session in July 2019 in Milan, Italy.

Bidding Calendars

The IOC Executive Board met in Lausanne, Switzerland to discuss the 2026 bid process on 9 June 2017. For the 2026 candidature process, the IOC will take a more proactive role in assisting and supporting cities considering a candidature. The IOC will customize its approach to the needs of the cities in order for them to develop the best value proposition. These measures will lead to a simplified process for the cities, with reduced costs. The Invitation Phase has been extended to one year, starting in September 2017, and the Candidature Phase has been shortened to one year, starting from 2018 to 2019. The new approach was approved at the Extraordinary IOC Session on July 11–12, 2017.^[1]

Potential bids

The following cities are actively working with their respective National Olympic Committee in considering a bid:

• Calgary, Canada^[2]

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi confirmed on 16 September 2015, that a group of community leaders are working on a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Calgary was host of the 1988 Winter Olympics. In June 2016, Calgary City Council approved spending up to $5 million on a 15-month bid exploration phase.^[3] It has also been proposed that Calgary would either build new centres and arenas, for example the controversial CalgaryNEXT arena which is a field house, multi-purpose arena, hockey arena and football stadium all in one planned for the Downtown/Sunalta neighbourhood or repurpose the arenas/event stages used for the 1988 Winter Olympics.^[4] John Furlong, CEO of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is running a group for the Canadian Olympic Committee to help Calgary.^[5]

• Erzurum, Turkey ^[6]

Mustafa Ilicak, a Turkish Member of Parliament representing the Erzurum province, declared that the city was considering a possible Olympic Winter Games bid for 2026 or 2030, and that they would take this idea to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he visited the city on March 31, 2017. He added that they would send a letter of application to the IOC in September, and that they would probably submit a shared bid with the neighbour cities of Erzincan and Kars. This would be the first time a Turkish city makes a bid for a Winter Olympic games, although Erzurum previously hosted the 2011 Winter Universiade.

• Innsbruck, Austria

On 17 February 2016, the "Tiroler Tageszeitung" wrote in an article that IOC president Thomas Bach asked the alpine city for an application for the 2026 Winter Olympics. He said that an event such as this would not only be celebrated, but lived. If applying, the host of the 1964 Winter Olympics, the 1976 Winter Olympics and the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics would reuse many of the sites used in the past games. In October 2016, the Austrian Olympic Committee (ÖOC) agreed to carry out a feasibility study into whether they should launch a bid.^[7] On 6 December 2016 the ÖOC commissioned a working group including renowned companies to conduct a feasibility study with results published on 22 June 2017. 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Innsbruck's 1976 Winter Olympics.^[8]

• Sapporo, Japan^[9]

Representatives from Sapporo in Japan, host of the 1972 Winter Games, stated that the city is considering a bid for the 2026 or 2030 Winter Olympics. The city predicts it may cost as much as 456.5 billion yen ($4.3 billion) to host the games and is planning to have 90 percent of the facilities within half an hour of the Olympic village, according to a report published 12 May 2016. The Alpen course would be in Niseko, the world’s second-snowiest resort, while the village would be next to Sapporo Dome.^[10] The plans were presented to the Japanese Olympic Committee on 8 November 2016.^[11][12]

• Sion, Switzerland

The Swiss Olympic Association made a general decision about a bid during the Sportparlament on 11 March 2016. Five candidates handed their letters of intent to the Association before the deadline of 31 May 2016.^[13] The candidates had until 15 December 2016 to forward their bid files to the Swiss Olympic Association. A candidate city has to be confirmed by the Association by 7 March 2017.^[14][15] Of the original five candidates, Central Switzerland withdrew, at least temporarily, because Lucerne was awarded the 2021 Winter Universiade. Two other proposals that included venues throughout Switzerland joined forces with the Western Switzerland bid. The bid Graubünden and Partners was rejected during a public referendum on 12 February 2017.

Sion was chosen against Montreux to be host city of the Western Switzerland Olympic bid after Lausanne and Crans-Montana withdrew.^[16] The bid includes venues within a square connecting the cities of Lausanne, Martigny, Visp and Bern.^[17] Sion bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics and 2006 Winter Olympics, but both lost to Salt Lake City and Turin respectively. 2026 would be two years shy of the 100th anniversary of the 1928 Winter Olympics, which were also held in Switzerland.

Cancelled potential bids

The following cities explored the possibility of bidding at some point, but decided not to bid or have some uncertainties according to media;

• Almaty, Kazakhstan

Almaty is reportedly considering a bid to host the 2026 Winter Games after narrowly losing to Beijing in its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.^[18] There's although information that Almaty won't bid because of two consecutive Asia-hosted Winter Olympics in 2018-22 and without new information of bid in 2017.

• Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden withdrew from the 2022 bid, but the Swedish NOC president claimed in December 2014 that Sweden could apply again, given that the IOC wants to reduce the cost of the Games for organisers, which was the problem with the 2022 bid.^[19] The Swedish Olympic Committee agreed to conduct a feasibility study on a potential bid for the 2026 Olympic Games.^[20] During the Semi Final Allocation Draw for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine on 31 January, it was announced by Eva-Louise Erlandsson Slorach, President of the City Council in Stockholm, that Stockholm would seek to host the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. On April 26, 2017, the Swedish Social Democratic party announced that Stockholm will not bid for the 2026 games.^[21]

• Helsinki, Finland with Lillehammer, Norway

Timo Ritakallio, the newly-elected chairperson of the Finnish Olympic Committee, floated the idea of the country submitting a joint bid with one of its neighbours, Norway or Sweden, to host the 2026 Winter Olympics. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä is supportive of the idea.^[22] Jussi Pajunen, mayor of Helsinki will invite for a joint meeting with the Finnish Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture to assess the possible implementation of the application for the Olympic Games and the start of preparations for the search planning if necessary.^[23]

• Aosta-(Aosta Valley), Italy^[24]

A public debate is promoted by a citizens' committee in the Italian region of Mont Blanc, in order to promote Aosta as the host of the Winter Olympics in 2026 ior laters . The idea was to build support among the citizens and promote the Games from the bottom up, to build a consensus supporting the effort. The Aosta Valley region's economy is mainly based on winter sports. Starting from 1970s the main winter resorts hosted world events: Courmayeur hosted a round of the 1977 Alpine Skiing World Cup, Cervinia a round of the 1978 Alpine Skiing World Cup, La Thuile a round of the 2016 Alpine Skiing World Cup and bobsleigh's FIBT World Championships 1971, Cogne a round of the 1984–85 FIS Cross-Country World Cup and a round of 2006–07 FIS Cross-Country World Cup and Fénis hosted in the 1986 FIL World Luge Natural Track Championships. In 1991, the city made a bid for the 1998 Winter Olympics but lost to Nagano, so a 2026 bid would be the city's second attempt. In 1993 Aosta hosted the first edition of the winter European Youth Olympic Festival and in 2010 it hosted the first edition of the Winet Military World Games. The Aosta bid was cancelled as Milan is to host the 132nd IOC Session to decide the host city, and IOC regulations state that no bid from a country is allowed when the IOC session is in the same country.

• Graubünden and Partners
  The canton of Graubünden released a concept named Graubünden and Partners including potential venues without referring to a dedicated host city.^[25] The map of the project presented on 16 December 2016 announced St. Moritz to be host city.^[26] Zurich refused even before to be host city of the bid.^[27] Voters in the area rejected the bid by more than 60 percent during a public referendum on 12 February 2017.^[28] Graubünden failed public referendums to host the 1980 Winter Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics as well.
• Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona (the location of the 1992 Summer Olympics) had waged a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but, according to mayor Xavier Trias, was not considered ready yet. Instead, one "must concentrate its efforts and commitment to work to reach the Olympic target by 2026".^[29] On 17 June 2015 Barcelona announced it will not be bidding to host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Mayor Ada Colau who won the municipal elections on 24 May decided that this is not a priority project for the city.^[30] On 24 July, the city council acorded to create a specific commission about the social and economic impact of the bid.^[31] On 16 March 2017 Barcelona’s City Hall government has taken itself out of the running to host the 2026 Winter Olympics Games. According to Barcelona’s deputy mayor, Jordi Collboni, the decision responded “to the current social and economic circumstances not only in Barcelona but in the whole country”. Of note, it would have been the second city to host both the Summer and the Winter Olympics after Beijing.^[32][18]

• Dresden-(Berlin), Germany

The mayor of Altenberg, Thomas Kirsten, brought in November 2013 after the Bavarians rejected a Munich bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics Dresden up for discussion. But the DOSB decided not to consider a bid since the lack of alpine skiing resorts would have made it necessary to use Czech venues.^[33]

• Auckland and Queenstown, New Zealand

A "pre-feasibility" report was published in May 2015 stating that a joint Winter Olympics Games with Australia would be feasible for 2026.^[34] Bruce McGechan, in a news release on 26 June 2015, said that the New Zealand Olympic Committee had considered the report but had decided not to ask the New Zealand Government to do a full feasibility study of hosting the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Therefore the Olympic Winter Games NZ 2026 project was shelved.

• Boston, United States

Boston was actively considering a bid for the 2026 Winter Games. This campaign was dropped when Boston was named the candidate city from the United States by the USOC for the 2024 Summer Games.^[35] Boston's campaign for the 2024 Summer Olympics has since been suspended, but the USOC is now bidding to host the Games in Los Angeles.^[36]

• Quebec City, Canada

Quebec City initially expressed interest in bidding. In September 2011, Quebec City mayor Régis Labeaume ruled out bidding for 2022. However, the city may bid for another Winter Games in the future.^[37] Then-IOC President Jacques Rogge stated that he believes that the 2026 Winter Olympics would be a realistic option for the city to organize the games.^[38] Quebec has a problem finding a mountain for the downhill event, as the planned location of Le Massif was not approved.^[39] In September 2015, during an interview on Radio-Canada, Labeaume ruled out any possibility of Quebec making a bid for 2026.^[40] Labeaume also attempted, but failed, to create a and Quebec City joint bid with Calgary's bid, Vancouver or Lake Placid, United States. Calgary’s Mayor Naheed Nenshi had confirmed his city, the 1988 host, were pondering a bid, but the talks on a joint effort appear to have collapsed.^[41]

Broadcasting

•  Brazil – Grupo Globo^[42]
•  United States – NBC^[43]

References

External links

• Website of Innsbruck 2026 (available in German)
• Website of Sion 2026 (available in English, French, German, Romansh and Italian)
• Website of Calgary 2026

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