Alpine venue hurdle to Olympic bid

IOC officials deem legacy facilities, including Dome, suitable for Games

The major mogul in the way of a successful Calgary Winter Olympics pursuit remains securing an alpine venue — and Canadians need to consider holding events in Banff National Park, the head of the city’s Games bid said Tuesday.

While IOC officials who toured Calgary’s 30-year-old Olympic facilities last week were satisfied with them, even giving the aging Scotiabank Saddledome their blessing, the lack of a definite site for alpine speed competitions remains a question mark, said Kyle Ripley.

His 2026 Olympic Bid Project Team favours using Lake Louise, a regular site of World Cup events.

“We need to have a philosophical conversation as Albertans, as Canadians, if that venue is appropriate in the national park, and we intend to have that conversation,” Ripley told reporters at WinSport at Canada Olympic Park, where numerous 1988 Winter Games events were held.

For now, Nakiska in Kananaskis Country, the site of alpine events during the 1988 Games that suffered numerous postponements due to high winds, remains an option, said Ripley.

He admitted World Cup races are substantially smaller than Olympic events but that “the venue has the capacity to accommodate that overlay.”

That drew an angry rebuke from Alberta environmental activist Harvey Locke, who said a Winter Games could employ Nakiska once again to spare an already stressed Banff National Park from accelerated environmental damage.

“It’s a wrong-headed idea that needs to be buried today . . . it would be an invasion, and invasions should be rejected,” said Locke, speaking from his home in Banff.

He said making Lake Louise an Olympic venue would require Ottawa waiving restrictions on national park development that would inevitably be needed to host the Games.

That would not only imperil sensitive grizzly bear habitat around the ski hill, but loosen future constraints on development.

“Look what happened to Canmore after the 1988 Games … there are people who want these events to promote development,” he said.

“We don’t need something new in Banff National Park, we need better management of the stresses that already exist.”

His words echo those of Kootenay-Columbia NDP MP Wayne Stetski, who said last month that a reported proposal to Parks Canada by the bid team to use Lake Louise should be rejected on environmental grounds.

There has been talk of hosting alpine events in 2026 at Whistler, near Vancouver, but Ripley said such distant venues increase costs, and security and logistics headaches.

He said facilities from the 1988 Games put Calgary in a good position, with IOC officials looking favourably at existing infrastructure as opposed to building new venues.

We don’t need something new in Banff National Park, we need better management of the stresses that already exist.

A reduced seating requirement for speedskating venues makes the Olympic Oval at the U of C viable, said Ripley, while a Scotiabank Saddledome deemed archaic by the NHL’s Flames would also be Games-worthy, according to the IOC.

“The IOC sees the Saddledome as a facility acceptable for hosting the ice hockey and figure skating competitions,” he said.

“We heard the IOC believes Calgary would be an incredible host city.”

Calgary’s wealth of existing infrastructure would reduce the $4.6-billion price tag for the Games, added Ripley, though he couldn’t say by how much.

Some of the savings would come from current highlevel use of the city’s facilities that negate the need for Olympic testing, he said.

The bid project team needs a commitment from the province and Ottawa to help fund the Games — which would mean $1.2 billion from each — by early next month, with a city decision to pursue the Games by late March, said Ripley.

The city has said it won’t move forward with the bid if other levels of government aren’t on board.

“We’re more confident our Games concept is acceptable to the IOC — we still have much work to do … to work through our financial models,” said Ripley.

Offsetting the total Games price tag would be $2.2 billion from revenues and related economic benefits.