Swiss Olympic, the National Olympic Committee of Switzerland, has announced that it will continue to study a bid from Switzerland for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The results of the study, which was initiated earlier this year, will be announced at a meeting of the Swiss “sports parliament”, the General Assembly of the NOC, on March 11, 2016.
Should the process favour a potential bid, Swiss Olympic would then announce the procedure that will be put in place to select the best possible project for submission to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
A joint Davos-St. Moritz bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games was defeated by a referendum in 2013 before it could be filed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and later failed referendums in Munich and Krakow for the same Games caused major concern for the viability of the Winter Games. Last year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) eased bidding regulations through its Agenda 2020 reforms.
The most recent Swiss bid submitted to the IOC was for Berne 2010, but it was abandoned before the election when voters voted almost 80 per cent against the proposal in a referendum.
Sion in Switzerland lost its bid for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games when it was defeated by Turin.
Jorg Schild, President of Swiss Olympic, said, “we are very happy to see so much enthusiasm across the various regions of the country for a 2026 bid. This shows that the sport movement and the Olympic spirit is strong and healthy in Switzerland. We are, of course, taking this into consideration. A bid for the Games is something very important that we need to study in detail. This is what we are currently doing and we look forward to announcing the results of our work in a few months”.
Lausanne, Switzerland’s home to the IOC headquarters, will be hosting the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games
The IOC will start accepting applications for the 2026 Games in 2017.
