Race to Host 2030 Winter Olympics Expanding, IOC Claims

The International Olympic Committee continues to draw interest from around the world to host the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, claimed Executive Director Christophe Dubi, while refusing to say from which regions the interest is being registered.

Dubi said after Wednesday’s IOC Executive Board meeting that he anticipated a report to the executive board before the IOC Session in Mumbai this fall, when it is expected that an announcement will be made on which bids the IOC will enter into targeted dialogue with. The two main public bidders as of late have been Salt Lake City and Stockholm after the Sweden Olympic and Paralympic Committees said it will study whether to bid for 2030.

Sweden’s entry into the race to stage the 2030 Winter Games is what the IOC has wanted since it announced in December it would postpone choosing a 2030 Winter Games host and potentially do a double awarding for both 2030 and 2034 when the IOC meets before the start of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. With the Summer Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, the IOC has been wary of having the U.S. host back-to-back Games, making Sweden or any other surprise candidate attractive to the IOC.

“We have to respect the willingness of Salt Lake City,” Dubi said. “They have clearly indicated that 2034 is their preference (but) they have said time and again that they are ready for 2030.”

Before the IOC’s December announcement, Vancouver’s bid was dealt a gut punch when the province of British Columbia said it would not financially support the bid. Dubi said on Wednesday the bid remains active and “our understanding is that conversations will take place again between the (Canadian Olympic Committee) and local authorities. This is due in the next few weeks.” Another bidder, Sapporo, has “paused” its bid following a decline in public support after a bribery scandal involving Tokyo 2020.

While the Salt Lake bid group and USOPC have said the preference is to host in 2034, its preparedness has been boasted about.

“There will not be bids from any other host which will be more attractive to the IOC than a bid from Salt Lake City,” USOPC Board Chair Gene Sykes said earlier this month. “… They have been looking to find a city that would offer a good alternative to Salt Lake City for 2030. They understand our preference. They have the same preference we do for 2034, if possible. But almost every other city has some limitation, either by capability or local support or something else. … I believe very strongly they understand the advantages that Salt Lake City has to every other potential host.”

Despite being an established giant in winter sports, Sweden has never hosted a Winter Games. The idea of Sweden joining the 2030 race came up at a meeting with the IOC in January that Dubi said was not initiated by the IOC. A joint Stockholm-Are bid lost to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy to stage the Winter Games in 2026 amid a lack of clear public support in Sweden.

Swedish Olympic official Hans von Uthmann told The Associated Press there is a June target to complete a feasibility study he is overseeing that revives most of the 2026 proposal, which included plans to stage ice-sliding sports in Latvia to avoid building a white elephant venue in Sweden — a key demand of IOC reforms to cut Olympic hosting costs.

Dubi was asked about the issue of fairness in the bidding process with four potential hosts being publicly known while the remaining number — which he hinted was “increasing further” from the six he said recently were involved — remain unknown.

“What is really important for us is to have, as we’ve done for 2032 and the awarding to Brisbane, to respect the confidentiality at a time where the discussions are in form where everybody’s gauging the interest,” he said. “That has to remain confidential. Once we move to continuous dialogue and the parties want to express publicly, here we are very happy to go with this as well and follow the lead of interested parties.”

IBA, IOC Still Fighting

After years in which the International Boxing Association has been a thorn in its side — it was suspended by the IOC in 2019 — there are signs the IOC’s resolve has come to an end. The IBA is run by Umar Kremlev, who has close ties to Putin; since Kremlev’s reign began in 2017, the organization has essentially been bankrolled by Russian interests.

The IOC organized the 2021 Tokyo Games boxing competition and is planning to run the competition for Paris 2024; the sport currently is off the schedule for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. The IBA’s world championships finished over the weekend and was boycotted by multiple countries, including the United States, after the IBA allowed boxers from Russia and Belarus to compete with their national flags and anthems.

The IBA, true to form, said the world championships were the qualifiers for the 2024 Olympics and sent a letter to the IOC saying it had “deep concerns about basic IOC governance, impartiality, and transparency principles” after the IOC’s plan to use IBA technical officials in Paris.

“If they really want to push ahead with what’s contained in that letter, they’re not interested in fair qualification and fair competition at the Olympic Games,” IOC Director of Communications Mark Adams said. “The IOC does not have any problem with the sport of boxing itself and not with the boxers. There are problems with this suspended federation. If the IBA pushes ahead with these proposals, it will have some consequences.”

Adams did not comment on the possibility that boxing may be eliminated from Paris 2024 should the IBA drama continue. In addition to boxing, the IOC has — for now— dropped weightlifting from the 2028 Games after a doping-related corruption scandal and a period of poor governance in which the International Weightlifting Association at one point had three leaders in three days.

USOPC Chief Executive Officer Sarah Hirshland said the organization is committed to two tracks within the sport and its NGBs; one is supporting athletes in competition when appropriate and the other is working to influence international governance in the two sports. The IOC has given a series of winks and nods toward the idea of a rival to the IBA that it would then sanction as the official international federation.

“Our teams are quite engaged and individuals from our country are quite engaged at the global level in the governance of both sports,” Hirshland said earlier this month. “We’re hopeful and optimistic that we’ll see progress and reform that will put both sports in good stead on the global stage. But I think there’s a lot of work yet to be done in both cases before we can declare victory there.”

News and Notes

• There was follow-up questioning over Tuesday’s announcement that individual athletes from Russia and Belarus should be allowed to compete, as long as they do not publicly support the invasion of Ukraine or serve in the military. While banning Russians in team sports, it keeps ‘neutral’ athletes on a pathway to competing in Paris 2024 should the respective International Federations allow them to. IOC President Thomas Bach said Tuesday “we will monitor the implementation of these recommendations and then take a decision in regard to the participation at the Olympic Games at the appropriate time.” Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin reportedly posted on Telegram calling the IOC’s recommendations as “unlawful, and a separate decision on team sports is openly discriminatory.”

Adams said the evaluation of conditions for athlete eligibility “needs to be done in a timely fashion,” but added “we were quite clear on how we want to go ahead, suggesting to the (international federations) that there should be an independent panel. It’s not up to the IOC who is eligible and who is not ineligible, that is the sole prerogative of the international federation. We have to leave it up to them.”

• The International Federation of American Football has been proposed by the executive board to be approved by the IOC Session for full recognition at the IOC Session during its meeting in Mumbai in October. Full recognition would be another step for the IFAF, which is lobbying to have flag football added to the 2028 Olympic Summer Games program in Los Angeles.

• The Olympic Esports Series 2023 will culminate in live, in-person finals for the first time at Singapore’s Suntec Centre from June 22–25. Games have been scheduled in archery, baseball, chess, cycling, dance, motorsports, sailing, taekwondo and tennis; Adams said the 2023 event has almost doubled in size from last year and additional sports could be lined up in the coming weeks.