Nenshi has ‘learned a lot’ during his trip in Korea
The boardrooms might be starting to blur together as he shuttles from meeting to meeting, but Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he’s “learned a lot” as his whirlwind trip to Pyeongchang continues as part of Calgary’s participation in an Olympic observer program.
Following a week of meetings and tours with the International Olympic Committee and the local South Korean organizing committee, Nenshi said that Calgary would host an “outstanding ” Winter Games in 2026 — if that’s what the city decides it wants.
“I’m absolutely convinced that we could do it, and we could do an amazing job at it, and now we still have to address the question of should we do it,” Nenshi told Postmedia Monday.
A key part of the trip, Nenshi said, has been appraising the IOC’s commitment to reforming the way Olympic hosting has been done in the past.
“That was one of the big reasons for my trip here, to really look eyeball to eyeball with the folks
involved in the Olympic movement to try and understand that commitment to reform a bit better,” Nenshi said.
“And I am much more comfortable now, having been here, that they are, in fact, entirely sincere and really, really want the Olympics to change, for the Olympics to be different, to be more costeffective, to be more efficient, and to not be as much of a burden on the host cities and host countries.”
The mayor is joined by municipal officials, as well as officials from Canmore, the province and the Canadian Olympic Committee in a $135,000 fact-finding trip to South Korea. The cost of the trip is being split between different levels of government, with the lion’s share shouldered by Calgary.
Nenshi has toured a number of venues since arriving in South Korea. Sunday, he toured Pyeongchang ’s International Broadcast Centre: one of the costliest components of any games, and an area that the Koreans and the IOC have targeted for cost-cutting.
“It really has been about learning more about the new norm and what it’s going to take to host a Winter Games in the future, because the 2026 process will be the first one under this new process,” Nenshi said.
“There’s also been some venue tours that have been really interesting. I’m not a technical expert on venues, but it’s been helpful to see how they’ve clustered things and how they manage their transportation.”
Between meetings, the mayor has managed to catch some of Canada’s thrilling, medal-winning performances.
“The very first thing I got to do
They are, in fact, entirely sincere and really, really want the Olympics to change … to be more cost-effective
was give a quick wave to Calgaryboy John Morris in one of his first matches with Kaitlyn Lawes,” Nenshi said of Canada’s mixed doubles curling team. “And I’m absolutely going to go watch them play for the gold medal, which is going to be amazing.”
But much of the sport the mayor has taken in has been on TV monitors between meetings.
“One of the biggest lessons here, since I’ve been here, is that windowless boardrooms in Korea are a lot like windowless boardrooms everywhere. There’s a lot of PowerPoint presentations and a lot of meetings, but they’ve been exceedingly valuable. I learned a lot.”