Given global warming and reticence about costs, does the Winter Olympics have a future? The IOC recognizes the challenge and knows it must relax its requirements if it wants to maintain a pool of potential hosts for decades to come.
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Apparently there is no reason to worry: on Wednesday the Olympic body will ask three candidates – France, Sweden and Switzerland – to enter into a “targeted dialogue” for the organization of the 2030 Olympic Games, while respecting the technical and financial guarantees of the dossier review(s) maintained until official award in 2024.
It is a better candidate than for the 2022 Olympics, which Beijing won against Almaty and which was characterized by huge investments, 100% artificial snow and numerous criticisms of the environment and human rights, and only for the 2026 edition, which Milan-Cortina won against Stockholm .
But while Sweden postponed its ambitions to 2030 last February, planning an ice sports center in Stockholm and a snow center around Are, more than 600 km away, France and Switzerland waited until this summer to jump into the dance and gave up their projects only known to fall in 2030, without political debate or consultation with the population.
Cascade of cancellations
For their part, the long-awaited favorites have thrown in the towel: Salt Lake City favors 2034 – Olympic Games, for which the American city is to enter into a “targeted dialogue” from Wednesday – and the Pyrenees-Barcelona then gave Sapporo (Japan), in particular by curbed costs.
Much more than the Summer Games, the recent history of the Winter Games is characterized by a cascade of canceled candidacies, from Calgary to Santiago de Chile via Auckland, Innsbruck, St. Moritz, Sion, Oslo or Lemberg, often without support from the population.
In addition to less significant economic benefits than in the summer, the Winter Olympics also bring with them equipment that is expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain, especially when it barely meets local needs – the ski jump, the toboggan/bobsled run, and the indoor speed skating facility -Oval are the three most maligned “white elephants”.
Added to this is the limitation of snow cover: if snow cannons are essential everywhere, it is still necessary that it is cold enough to operate them and that the events remain fair – without raining on the slopes, as was the case at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. or that the mildness burrows into the snow, as at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.
Ten potential hosts?
However, global warming will further reduce the locations that can ensure correct conditions: according to a study by the IOC published in mid-October, only ten countries will be able to host the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Here in 2040, compared to today, there are around fifteen, with warming “mainly affecting the countries of Europe”.
And the Olympic body dares not predict the more distant future, while a University of Waterloo study published in 2015 estimated that of the first 19 Winter Olympics venues in 2080, only six could remain “climatically reliable.”
Therefore, the IOC envisages a series of adjustments: a “double allocation” 2030-2034 to secure the sites as quickly as possible, savings to reduce the Olympic Games to the equivalent of the cumulative world championships of the various disciplines, and a possible Rotation between a handful of hosts who already have all the equipment.
In addition, the Summer Games are about avoiding new construction and allowing cities to unite, even if they are far away or even in different countries – so the Milan-Cortina luge bobsleigh events will be tackled in Austria or The Switzerland and the 2030 candidacies of Switzerland, France and Sweden all involve significant travel.
But what does it mean in practice if it has been the case for years that the Olympic Games adapt to the regions and not the other way around? What transport times between snow or ice locations remain acceptable? What ceremonies or equipment should you forego to save even more?
On Wednesday, the selected arguments from the “targeted dialogue” are expected to provide the first answers.