Switzerland Unveils Potential Venues for 2038 Olympic Winter Games Bid

Switzerland has unveiled the potential venues for its bid to host the 2038 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

10 cantons and 14 municipalities across the country are supporting the project, it was announced by the Switzerland 2038 association during a press conference held in the Swiss capital Bern. The bid team has been keen to stress so far that it would use “existing first-class sports facilities” as much as possible.

The Swiss project is currently the only Olympic body in the running to host the 2038 Games after the International Olympic Committee reserved Switzerland the right to host the events until the end of 2027. The country remains in exclusive dialogue with the IOC and has until the end of next year to further develop and revise its application.

If successful, it would be Switzerland’s first time in 90 years to host the Olympic Winter Games, having last welcomed the event in St. Moritz in 1948 (which also hosted the first Olympic Winter Games in 1928).

Geneva, Lausanne, Crans-Montana, Engelberg, Zurich, Zug, Lugano, Lenzerheide and St. Moritz are cited by the project as potential host cities and towns for any of the 120 or so competitions. Meanwhile, Lausanne has been mooted as a potential host city for the opening ceremony, with Bern being considered to hold the closing ceremony.

Alpine Ski Racing in Crans-Montana

It was announced that Crans-Montana is set to host the Alpine ski races at the Games, less than a fortnight after a fire at a bar in the Swiss resort left 40 people dead and a further 116 injured.

As such, it would also mean that Olympic and Paralympic competitions would take place in every region of the country.

The Switzerland 2038 association was founded in 2023 by the national winter sports federations, Swiss Olympic and Swiss Paralympic.