IOC delays 2030 Olympic host city decision to 2024 earliest

Fireworks backdropping the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremony. (International Olympic Committee)

The decision on the host city for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games has been delayed again, pushing any decision beyond 2023 — now most likely in 2024.

Three months ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) moved the anticipated 2030 decision from May 2023 to September or October 2023 due to ongoing controversies with the Indian Olympic Association and India’s role in hosting the 140th IOC Session in Mumbai.

But during an IOC press conference Tuesday from the sports organization’s headquarters in Lausanne, the IOC announced the 2030 host city decision will no longer take place during the 140th IOC Session, and it has now been moved to after next year at the earliest.

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The IOC stated it informed the three potential candidates — Vancouver, Canada; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Sapporo, Japan — of this decision today and that the existing Continuous Dialogue process will be extended instead of entering the Targeted Dialogue process this month of entering into detailed negotiations with one or two shortlisted candidates.

This effectively provides the potential Vancouver bid, led by First Nations and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), with more time to re-engage the Government of British Columbia, which had indicated in late October it was not willing to financially commit to the cost of hosting the Games at this time. This was a major setback for the potential Vancouver bid, but the COC has made it clear it has not ended its bid efforts and is instead attempting to have the provincial government come back to the table. On the other hand, the federal government has shown some interest in exploring its support for the bid, but this depends on the provincial government making the first move in indicating its support.

However, the IOC’s official reasons for the lengthy 2030 decision delay are not to give the potential bids more time, but rather to give itself more time.

Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s Olympic Games Executive Director, told media Tuesday the sports organization needs the lengthened runway in time to create a long-term strategy to protect the future viability of the Winter Olympics in the backdrop of a warming climate.

“We have preliminary results of leading academic research on the impact of climate change, which shows a potential reduction in the number of climate-reliable hosts in the future,” said Dubi.

“We have ongoing discussions with winter sport federations on adjustments that have started to be made to their event calendars and potentially new competition formats.”

More importantly, for the first time ever, he says the IOC is now discussing the “idea of rotating the Winter Games within a certain pool of cities and regions” — specifically previous hosts with the available venues and infrastructure. Of course, the Winter Games has highly specialized and technical venue requirements, such as suitable mountains for snow sports, a ski jump, a sliding track, and a speed skating oval.

He added that the IOC’s Future Host Commission is considering aiming to target host cities to have all venues be existing or temporary, which builds on the IOC’s Agenda 2020 reforms — for both the Winter and Summer Olympics — of introducing more flexibility to the hosting requirements to lower costs and risks and improve the sustainability of hosting.

For the Winter Olympics specifically, there could be a requirement to have potential host cities provide proof of a minimum average temperature of below 0°C for snow competition venues at the time of the Games over a 10-year period.

“All these being considered, upon the request of the commission, the IOC Executive Board decided to give the commission more time to study all of these factors and opportunities to make the best possible decision about future hosting.

“It will enable the commission to consult deeply with interested parties of course, but also international federations, National Olympic Committees, the athletes, and the winter sport industry experts. This will give the commission more time in making a clearer picture and sound decision for 2030.”

Furthermore, the IOC made it clear they are considering the potential of a double award at the same time for the Winter Games of 2030 and 2034.

Dubi says the possibility of a double award is “a question of stability” for the Winter Olympics and acknowledged that extending the timeline for the 2030 host city process potentially opens the possibility for new additional competitors in addition to Vancouver, Salt Lake City, and Sapporo. It is believed there is currently more interest in bidding for 2034 than 2030.

“The mandate of the commission is to constantly ensure there is a healthy pipeline of interest in the future for the Winter, Summer, and Youth Olympic Games,” he added.

The IOC was challenged in its processes for selecting the host cities for the Games of 2022 Winter, 2024 Summer, and 2026 Winter, which saw few bid cities participate in the bidding process due in part to the high costs and associated risks of both bidding and hosting. A number of cities also dropped out during the various bidding processes, including Calgary’s failed bid for 2026.

Under the IOC’s reforms starting in 2017, it scrapped the traditional seven-year period between awarding the Games to a city and the start of the 17-day event.

It awarded the Australian city of Brisbane the rights to host the 2032 Summer Olympics in July 2021.

The scenario of a double award is not unprecedented, too.

In September 2017, the IOC simultaneously awarded Paris the rights to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and Los Angeles the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics — seven years and 11 years in advance, respectively.

When asked whether awarding the 2030 Games in 2024 would impact the ability of a host city to adequately prepare for their hosting duties, given that the successful proponent would be provided with a period of about six years, Ibi suggested there are no concerns as Vancouver, Salt Lake City, and Sapporo are all past hosts of the Winter Olympics with existing venues and infrastructure. Salt Lake City held the 2002 Winter Games, while Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Games, and has recent event hosting experience as a human legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

“If you take the context we’re in right now, those proposals we have on the table have hosted the Games in the past, and they have the expertise,” he continued, adding that all three cities have “well-developed” proposals.

“So no concern whatsoever, and we feel very comfortable about that. We can award the Games later, and still be right on time to deliver. This is the reason why it takes the commission more time to dig deeper on the fundamentals.”

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