Reporting from Main Press Centre in Milan, Italy – The first-ever joint “widespread” Olympic Winter Games is underway across northern Italy with four main clusters including Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno and Predazzo. The vast distances make it challenging for spectators to enjoy a good cross-section of events. But did it have to be this way? It almost wasn’t.
Here’s why.
Eight cities wanted to bid for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Seven submitted applications to host the Games.
Four cities withdrew from the race before the final vote.
One city was excluded from the race after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) found it was not qualified.
Another possible joint Games candidate, Stockholm Åre in Sweden, was defeated by Milano Cortina on the final IOC member ballot 47-34.
Innsbruck in Austria had put together a bid proposal but in 2017 the city held a referendum and the project was defeated when over 53 percent of residents rejected plans. Instead, Graz was given the Austrian’s national Olympic Committee nomination and an application was sent to the IOC.
But months after applying, a petition to force a referendum in Graz was successful, and instead of risking an embarrassing loss at the polls the government pulled the bid.
Sapporo got its application into the IOC before the deadline but later government officials determined that needed transportation improvements including critical rail service would not be ready in time and they decided to push the bid to 2030 and drop 2026 plans.
Sion in Switzerland was also in the running to host but a referendum held in the Canton of Valais to fund the project with CHF100 million (USD $128 million) was not received well and 54 percent voted against plans. The bid was immediately dropped.
The IOC only had four cities to move forward with, but after an early evaluation the city of Erzurum in Turkey was dropped from the shortlist. A report noted that the timing was bad for the city that would require significant investment “in general infrastructure such as accommodation, transport, energy and telecoms,” according to a statement.
Calgary in Canada was a good prospect for the IOC and a second Olympics in the city was an opportunity to extend the physical legacy of the 1988 Games – but residents did not agree. Over 56 percent of Calgarians voted against a bid by the city and plans were dropped.
That left only Milano Cortina and Stockholm Åre.
Sweden would have been a two cluster Games with most of the ice events centered in capital Stockholm and the skiing events a one-hour flight away in Åre. It was a solid plan, that if awarded would have represented a first Winter Games to the most medaled nation never to have hosted. With only two tight clusters it was a more compact footprint than Italy’s.
But the Swedish governments were fiscally prudent and the municipalities offered to lease venues to the organizing committee rather than underwriting guarantees. While Swedes, and their government said they supported the Games, then IOC president Thomas Bach said he and his membership disagreed.
“Gathering a little bit of the atmosphere when we were leaving the [final bid presentation] room, my assumption is that what was key, what finally made the difference, was the gap in the public support [in Sweden],” Bach said.
At first, Italy’s plans were more complex and political infighting led to various version of plans. Milan and 2006 host city Turin were to submit a joint bid but Cortina d’Ampezzo wanted to organize its own project. Eventually three cities – Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo and Turin – were to share the marquee and events, but the project still needed national government approval and disagreements among the parties continued.
The Italian government refused to support the dysfunctional project and declared the bid “dead” but the Italian Olympic Committee moved forward anyways and submitted the final Milano Cortina project to the IOC – excluding Turin. The government eventually approved the plan.
And with only a few changes, that’s the plan on the ground today.
