2030 Winter Olympics

The 2030 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXVI Olympic Winter Games, is an upcoming international multi-sport event. The host city was initially set to be elected at the 140th IOC Session in Mumbai in 2023, but IOC officials declared in December 2022 that they were no longer working toward electing a host at that time.

Bidding process

The new IOC bidding process was approved at the 134th IOC Session on 24 June 2019 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The key proposals, driven by the relevant recommendations from Olympic Agenda 2020, are:
*Establish a permanent, ongoing dialogue to explore and create interest among cities/regions/countries and National Olympic Committees for any Olympic event
*Create two Future Host Commissions (Summer and Winter Games) to oversee interest in future Olympic events and report to the IOC executive board
*Give the IOC Session more influence by having non-executive board members form part of the Future Host Commissions.

The IOC also modified the Olympic Charter to increase its flexibility by removing the date of election from 7 years before the games, and changing the host from a single city/region/country to multiple cities, regions, or countries.

Future Host Winter Commissions

The full composition of the Winter Commissions, overseeing interested hosts or with potential hosts where the IOC may want to focus on, is as follows:

Dialogue stages

According to the Future Host Commission's rules of conduct, the new IOC bidding system is divided into 2 dialogue stages:
*Continuous dialogue: Non-committal discussions between the IOC and interested parties (City/Region/Country/NOC interested in hosting) with regard to hosting future Olympic events.
*Targeted dialogue: Targeted discussions with one or more interested parties (called preferred host(s)), as instructed by the IOC Executive Board. This follows a recommendation by the Future Host Commission as a result of continuous dialogue.
During the Olympic Summit on 9 December 2022 the IOC informed to remain in "Continuous Dialogue" with several well-developed projects by parties that have expressed interest in the Olympic Winter Games 2030 and with whom intense collaboration is ongoing.

The Summit was also informed that the Commission is looking into challenges and opportunities facing future Olympic Winter Games, such as the impact of climate change. A number of proposals which could have an impact on future elections were discussed, including rotation of the Games within a certain pool of hosts, minimum climate conditions and existing infrastructure criteria.

Upon the request of the Commission, the IOC Executive Board decided to give the Commission more time to study all these factors to make the best possible decisions about future hosting, including a revised 2030 election timeframe.

Bidding parties

The three first potential submitting bidding parties were revealed by Octavian Morariu, the chair of the Future Host Winter Commission, during the 135th IOC Session at the SwissTech Convention Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland. He mentioned Salt Lake City of the United States, Sapporo of Japan and a joint bid from the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Zaragoza at the Pyrenees region have conducted feasibility studies. But later, on 2022, Spain bid withdrew. Vancouver, Canada, made a preliminary bid submission in February 2021.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are those cities or regions that have expressed potential interest in hosting the Games. To date, four National Olympic Committees have expressed interest, though Spain and Canada later withdrew. The remaining two interested sites are as follows:

* Salt Lake City, Utah, United States; site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, the 2002 Paralympic Winter Games and the 2007 Winter Deaflympics. In December 2018 the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee named Salt Lake City, Utah as America's Choice for a future Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games was formed in February 2020 to pursue a bid for 2030 or 2034. The committee bolstered its engagement with athletes in governance in June 2021, naming four-time Olympic speed skater Catherine Raney-Norman as its chair. In February 2020, following the announcement of Sapporo's bid, the organizing committee for the Salt Lake City bid was considered moving their intention to bid for the 2034 Games as the Summer Games are scheduled for Los Angeles in 2028. At the first meeting in June 2021, the organizing committee considered whether it should change the bid for 2030 or 2034. The decision for Salt Lake City on the bidding for 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics could be made after Beijing 2022 ending. President and chief executive of the Salt Lake City Bid Committee Fraser Bullock mentioned that the small window between the Los Angeles 2028 and a potential Salt Lake City 2030 Games could be a real difficulty to manage and that the feasibility study for this is still ongoing. The IOC sent a delegation to Salt Lake City, from April 27 to 29, 2022, to conduct an inspection and a technical site visit of the competitions, ceremonies and Olympic Village venues.
:Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games chief executive Fraser Bullock confirmed at a meeting on 1 November 2022 that "SLC considers the upcoming process is focused on 2030 and SLC will fully participate in that process to hopefully get either the 2030 or 2034 Olympics".
* Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; host city of the 1972 Winter Olympics, the marathon and race-walking events at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 1986, 1990 and 2017 Asian Winter Games along the 1991 Winter Universiade.

Developments

A decision on the 2030 Winter Olympics host city has been delayed, most likely to 2024, to allow the IOC more time to carefully plan the future of the Winter Olympics. Due to impacts from climate change, the IOC is considering a number of changes to future games, such as rotating host cities, limiting the games to existing or temporary venues, and establishing minimum average temperature requirements. It also considered awarding the 2030 and 2034 winter games simultaneously at the next IOC session, but IOC President Thomas Bach has ruled out that possibility because "it would not be the right thing to do."

Bid details

Potential bids

* Almaty, Kazakhstan
* Borjomi, Georgia
* Calgary, Alberta, Canada
* Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Savoie, France

Cancelled bids

* Barcelona and Zaragoza – Pyrenees, Spain
On June, 21 2022, Spain bid withdrew, due to a political row between autonomous communities: Catalonia and Aragon, where the Pyrenees mountain range extends.
* Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Broadcasting rights

*Australia – Nine Network
*Brazil – Grupo Globo
*Canada – CBC/Radio-Canada
*China – CMG
*Japan – Japan Consortium
*Korea – JTBC
*United States – NBCUniversal

References

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Winter Olympics
Winter Olympics by year
Winter Olympics