Athletes tell Calgary to stick with 2026 bid

CALGARY Sensing a Calgary bid for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games is about to die, some Canadian athletes have mobilized to keep it alive.

About 50 active and retired athletes held a news conference Friday at Canada Olympic Park urging city council not to quit on a bid before all the facts are known and the financial picture is clear.

Many of them were Olympians and Paralympians from Calgary or who moved to Calgary, and built their careers on the legacy of the 1988 Winter Olympics. They’re organizing a campaign of letters, texts and social media messages to councillors in advance of the vote.

“Keep exploring the bid and not just shut it down before there’s more information,” two-time Olympic speedskater Gilmore Junio pleaded.

Councillors are expected to vote early next week on whether to continue work on a potential bid. A slate of recommendations that kept a bid on the table barely passed last month with an 8-6 vote.

The Alberta and Canadian governments have committed to financially supporting a bid corporation. A bid is estimated to cost $30 million.

A city bid project team took over the work of the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee, which estimated the cost of the Games at $4.6 billion.

Calgary has already spent $6 million investigating and analyzing what a bid might look like.

“The city has already said they ’re interested in the games,” former luger Jeff Christie said. “Let’s finish the process, understand and see if this is an economically responsible games to potentially bid for.”

Mark Tewksbury, an Olympic gold medallist in swimming now on the Canadian Olympic Committee’s board of directors, says it’s important to let a bid corporation, with money from other levels of government, do its work.

Calgary ’s Chamber of Commerce said Friday the business community wants to keep exploring a bid.