SECOND THOUGHTS Sapporo unsure about 2026 Winter Olympics bid
The Japanese city of Sapporo seems to be having second thoughts about bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympics and could focus instead on the 2030 Games.
Sapporo held the 1972 Winter Olympics and is one of seven cities showing interest in 2026. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide in October which bids are serious. The winner will be picked in September 2019.
Akihiro Okumura, a spokesman for the city’s bid promotion department, tells The Associated Press that public opinion polls seem to indicate a preference for 2030.
“Sapporo has not made an official decision yet,” he told AP in an email. He said the city and the Japanese Olympic Committee were still mulling all possibilities.
He said recent opinion polls conducted by local media and the Sapporo chamber of commerce indicated “It might be better for Sapporo to bid for 2030 instead of 2026. This is actually one of the factors we need to consider for the decision.”
The other interested cities are: Stockholm, Sweden; Calgary, Canada; Sion, Switzerland; Milan-Turin, Italy; Erzurum, Turkey; Graz, Austria.
The IOC has tried to reshape its bidding process after six European cities pulled out of possible or official bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics. It was left with proposals from two authoritarian states with Beijing, China, winning narrowly over Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Cities interested in the Olympics have balked at soaring costs, a lack of public support expressed in rejected referendums, and expensive venues left to become “white elephants.”