Turkey considering bid for 2026 Winter Olympics

Rio mayor probed for bribery in Oly contracts

ANKARA, Turkey, April 12, (Agencies): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the country is considering a bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics in the eastern provinces of Erzurum, Erzincan and Kars.

Erdogan made the announcement Wednesday during a campaign rally in Erzurum ahead of a referendum on strengthening the powers of the president.

Erdogan says “the Winter Games would suit Erzurum ... We are making preparations for such a bid for 2026.”

Although Turkey has made several attempts to host the Summer Olympics, it would be the country’s first bid for the Winter Games.

Erzurum previously hosted World University Games in 2011.

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In 2013, Istanbul lost to Tokyo in the vote for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has opened an investigation into former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, who is accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes for contracts related to last year’s Olympic Games, court documents showed on Wednesday.

The accusations came from plea bargain testimony by former executives at engineering group Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] that the court plans to release on Wednesday after Justice Edson Fachin opened cases against nearly 100 politicians on Tuesday.

One executive testified and provided corroborating documents to show Paes solicited payments of more than 15 million reais ($4.8 million) in 2012 in return for Olympic contracts, according to the court.

Sion’s bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics was ratified by the Swiss Olympic committee on Tuesday.

The candidacy had been approved by Swiss Olympic’s executive board last month but still needed the backing of the country’s 86 sports federations, the so-called sport parliament, which it received at an assembly on Tuesday.