(Lausanne) The Stockholm city council publicly supported Sweden’s candidacy for the 2030 Olympic Games on Tuesday, at the dawn of decisive meetings for the award of the next Winter Games.
A panel from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will participate in video conferences with groups wishing to submit their candidatures, with a view to decisions being made next week. The IOC Executive Committee intends to identify priority candidates for the holding of the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympic Games during these meetings which will take place in Paris for three days starting December 1.
“All the leaders of the national Olympic committees who have expressed interest in organizing the Winter Games have obtained an invitation to unveil their project during a videoconference,” mentioned the IOC on Tuesday.
Salt Lake City, Utah, is considered the favorite to win the 2034 Olympics – 32 years after hosting the 2002 Olympics – but nothing is yet decided for the 2030 Winter Games. Sweden , France and Switzerland — its national sports federations will be subject to a vote Friday to determine whether the project will go ahead — are said to be in the running.
Priority applications will then be able to begin a round of exclusive negotiations, better known in Olympic circles as “targeted dialogue”.
The IOC indicated last month that it was targeting July 2024 — during a meeting in Paris on the eve of the opening of the Summer Olympics — to approve the host cities for the next Winter Olympics.
Sweden is once again in the race to win the Winter Olympics, after eight failures. Her bid surprised many this year, after favorite Sapporo, Japan, withdrew from the process amid investigations into bribes allegedly paid during preparations for the Tokyo Summer Games. in 2021.
The current Scandinavian project revives the failed one of 2019, which mainly focused on Stockholm, after the lack of willingness of Swedish elected officials to offer financial guarantees to the IOC had paved the way for the victory of Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo, in Italy, for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
