Calgary among 7 cities in the running for 2026 Winter Olympics

Apr 3 2018, 10:53 pm

The 2026 Winter Olympics are eight years away, but the competition has already begun.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) released the list of seven cities that have expressed their interest in hosting the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Among them is Calgary, host of the 1988 Games and a city that has been looking into bringing the Olympics back to Alberta since 2014.

Calgary plans to use some of the existing infrastructure from the 1988 Winter Games to bring the total cost of hosting down, a plan that aligns with the IOC’s newly created New Norm Report.

There has also been talk of Vancouver’s somewhat newer Olympic infrastructure being packaged into Calgary’s bid.

Here is the full list of potential host cities for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games:

  • Graz, Austria
  • Calgary, Canada
  • Cortina d’Ampezzo/Milan/Turin, Italy
  • Sapporo, Japan
  • Stockholm, Sweden
  • Sion, Switzerland
  • Erzurum, Turkey

Three out of the other six potential host cities have also seen an Olympic Games in the past; Sapporo, Japan in 1972; Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in 1956; and Stockholm, Sweden way back in 1912.

“I warmly welcome the NOCs’ and cities’ interest in hosting the Olympic Winter Games,” said IOC President Thomas Bach, in the release.

“The IOC has turned the page with regard to Olympic candidatures. Our goal is not just to have a record number of candidates, but ultimately it is to select the best city to stage the best Olympic Winter Games for the best athletes of the world.”

The seven cities are currently in the new Dialogue Stage of the candidate procedure, wherein the National Olympic Committees will research, create, and strengthen their bids.

Cities will then be chosen to go into the next stage of application in October, with a final decision from the IOC coming in September 2019.

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