From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
The Opening Ceremony at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. Calgary is in the final three for hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. (Photo: Olympic.ca)
The Olympics are a global spectacle, but all politics is local. And when the two truisms go head-to-head in today’s plebiscite vote in Calgary, Alberta, local threatens to win. At stake is the future of one of three remaining host cities for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, a status that has perhaps lost some of its former luster.
There were once seven cities that had progressed to the “dialogue stage” of potentially hosting the 2026 Games, including Calgary; Graz, Austria; Erzurum, Turkey; Milan–Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (joint bid); Sion, Switzerland; Sapporo, Japan; and Stockholm, Sweden. (Other boldface names, such as Lillehammer or Innsbruck, had previously expressed some interest but then withdrawn.)
Then Graz, Sapporo, and Sion withdrew, followed by Erzurum. As of Tuesday morning, there are three cities still in the running: Stockholm, Milan–Cortina, and Calgary.
But Calgary might not be on the list too much longer. As the New York Times headlined its story on today’s vote, “Does Calgary Really Want the Winter Olympics? Does Anyone?” The article begins, “Hobbled by a reputation for gross expense and corruption, the International Olympic Committee has become a mendicant, shuffling from nation to nation, shaking its cup and asking if anyone might be interested in bidding on the 2026 Winter Games.”
Calgary’s plebiscite, which is synonymous with a referendum vote, is technically non-binding – “but a majority ‘no’ vote would make it almost impossible for the project to continue,” noted GamesBids.com. The Calgary City Council has final say on whether the city proceeds with its bid. Today’s vote will help guide the council’s decision.
GamesBids.Com added, “More than CAD $2 billion (USD $1.5 billion) of Olympics funding promised from the provincial and federal governments is contingent on a satisfactory ‘yes’ result on Tuesday. The total taxpayer costs are estimated at almost CAD $3 billion of the entire $5.2 billion project.”
Much more background information is available here on GamesBids.com. As the Calgary Herald explains, polls close at 8 p.m. local time tonight (6 p.m. Alaska Time, 10 p.m. East Coast Time for American readers), with results available roughly two hours later.
Here’s GamesBids.com on the “standings” of the other two remaining cities if the results of today’s vote lead Calgary to withdraw its bid at next week’s city council meeting:
Stockholm remains in the race to bring the first Winter Games to Sweden, but the Capital has failed to rally any government support for the project and it will need approvals in place before a January 11 IOC deadline.
A joint Italian bid between Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo emerged just last month, but it lacks federal government funding. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has said that the regional government representing the two cities will foot the bill, and last week IOC President Thomas Bach confirmed in Rome that this plan would be accepted.
If Calgary voters say ‘no’ Tuesday, it will be the Italian bid with the best chance of being elected as 2026 host city when the IOC takes the vote at the end of June.
The site also notes that the last eight cities to proceed to a referendum vote have seen voters reject the chance to host the Olympics… but that all those cities were in Europe, and that the last two Canadian cities to take up this question, Quebec City and Vancouver, voted in favor.
The Opening Ceremony at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. Calgary is in the final three for hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. (Photo: Olympic.ca)
The bidding process for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics is crawling forward, and when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the shortlist last Thursday, Oct. 4, Calgary was in the final three.
Calgary, Alberta, is one of the final three in the running to host the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. (Photo: www.calgary2026.ca)
Much has changed since the last time Calgary, Alberta, hosted the Games in 1988 as well as since Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010. The IOC is now in favour of joint bids, re-use of existing facilities and lower costs. These improvements have resulted in more competition for 2026 than for 2022 (which was awarded to Beijing), but each comes with challenges.
The increased interest in 2026 may turn out to be temporary. Sapporo, Japan, ended its bidding process after a major earthquake. Sion, Switzerland, dropped out after losing a referendum, and Graz, Austria, couldn’t get the support of its regional government.
Last Thursday, the IOC announced that Erzurum, Turkey, was out of contention. IOC Vice President Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr., referenced telecommunications, transport and airports as concerns, but did not mention that there was no sliding centre (for bobsled, luge and skeleton). The Turkish government had previously declined the suggested use of Sochi’s sliding centre, some 650 kilometers away in Russia, which would likely have been unpopular with the IOC as well.
Calgary, Stockholm (Sweden), and Milano/Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) are still in the running, each with their own advantages and challenges. While most cost estimates are being disputed by local “experts”, comparing costs between bids remains difficult.
Bid books are to be delivered in January 2019 with a final decision announced in September 2019. The September announcement will be in Lausanne, Switzerland, replacing the originally planned meeting in Milano, as bidding countries are not allowed to host decision meetings.
Many of Calgary’s 1988 Olympic facilities are still in tact, the most visible being the 70- and 90-meter ski jumps. By the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, the standard jump sizes were increased, replacing the 90-meter hill with the HS106 (K95) and adding a larger HS140 (K125) hill. Neither of the existing jumps, slated for closure this month, are suitable for upgrading.
The current proposal from Calgary is to maintain the jumps in Whistler, B.C., to current standards, allowing ski jumping and nordic combined events to be held in Whistler. This would save a great deal of money and avoid the construction of facilities that will get minimal use after the Olympics. The 11-hour drive and one-hour time difference between Calgary and Whistler is the largest separation of the remaining bids. The flying time from Calgary to Vancouver is about 90 minutes, but requires an additional 2 1/2 hours of driving to and from airports. The distance is not viewed as a problem in the IOC’s new vision. This is a big change from the 2010 bid process, when the two-hour drive from Vancouver to Whistler was originally seen as a deal-breaker. The cooperation between Whistler and Calgary makes financial sense for the local organizing committee, but will be difficult to achieve during the current economic battle between Alberta and British Columbia (see “The Alberta/B.C. Conflict” sidebar).
The Alberta/B.C. Conflict:
This is a very complicated and long-standing issue, but the conflict is currently front and centre in both provinces.
Alberta’s economy is almost entirely dependent on oil exports. Alberta is desperate to build a new pipeline to transport diluted bitumen to the coast for shipping. Alberta needs this export capability to restore its status as the richest province and re-employ laid-off citizens. The Alberta government needs the tax revenue from increased exports to function, let alone maintain support for expensive recreation facilities like Canmore Nordic Centre and Frozen Thunder.
B.C.’s economy depends on tourism, fisheries, and forestry, all of which would be seriously damaged by an ocean oil spill. A large increase in tanker traffic through the narrow and rock-infested passage to the open ocean is a serious concern, with the cleanup expected to be more difficult than the Exxon Valdez oil spill, with Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle all at risk.
The dispute between the provinces is unlikely to be solved quickly, unless the politicians of one province put their own voters’ jobs at risk to help the other province. The federal government is feeling the pain of Alberta’s tax revenue drop, but the Federal Appeals Court ruled that they must consider risks of an ocean oil spill before expanding their recently purchased pipeline to Vancouver. The Washington state government is concerned about the risk its state will face while Alberta reaps all the rewards, but it seems unlikely that it can interest the U.S. federal government in an environmental issue.
A natural gas (LNG) pipeline from Alberta to the coast is currently proceeding with support from the B.C. government as the risks to B.C. are much smaller. While the gas pipeline is in the news, it is unlikely to distract Calgary’s residents from viewing the 2026 plebiscite as a way to share their economic pain.
There is an idea that the Olympics should move around the world, and many feel that it is Europe’s turn. Calgary already hosted in 1988 and Vancouver in 2010. Asia has hosted since 2014 with Sochi in 2014, PyeongChang (South Korea) in 2018, and next up Beijing (China) in 2022.
Calgary has the most organized bid, having started the process three years ago.
The city of Calgary’s non-binding plebiscite is scheduled for Nov. 13. Voters will be considering their struggling economy, growing provincial debts, the disputed legacy from 1988, costs, and hitting back at B.C. against the possibility of a better legacy after 2026. While cross-country skiers wouldn’t doubt the value of the Canmore Nordic Centre to North American skiing, not all Calgarians are convinced about the value of hosting the Games.
The IOC is campaigning for Calgary to support the bid.
As a side note, in 2010, most Canadians saw the Vancouver Olympics as a two-hour event. The men’s gold-medal hockey game was what changed those Olympics from ‘disaster’ to ‘best-ever’ status.
Milano/Cortina d’Ampezzo
The Milano/Torino/Cortina d’Ampezzo bid briefly lost Milano in August before Italy’s differences were resolved. Then, when the national government confirmed that it would not support the bid financially, Torino dropped out, apparently for good. The Lombardy and Veneto regions are expected to provide funding, and considering that the two regions’ combined GDP is larger than Sweden’s, this may not be a problem.
This bid is very spread out, in European terms, with events in Milano, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Val di Fiemme, and Anterselva (“Anterselva” is the official Italian name for what the biathlon world and German-speaking locals call Antholz). Milano has excellent train service and two major airports, making it the most accessible host city. However, the mountain communities are served largely by bus and travel times can be as much as six hours from Milano. Express buses could reduce this to four hours.
Italy’s national political situation is always interesting, with short-lived coalitions running the country most of the time. This bid is dependent on the far more effective regional governments; while Lombardy and Veneto officially represent only 40 percent of Italy’s GDP, their influence is much larger.
Milano/Cortina, Italy, is among the final-three candidates in the running to host the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Photo: Neveitalia/Twitter)
Stockholm
Stockholm’s Royal Palace as seen in 2012 during FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals.
Stockholm’s bid is moving along quietly, with Latvia planning housing for its existing sliding centre at Sigulda, 680 kilometers and a ferry ride away from Stockholm. Sweden has most of its facilities in place already and appears to have the least building costs of the candidates. Sweden’s bid currently has no official support from any level of government, which is partially why it’s been less visible. Sweden’s September federal election has added some uncertainty, with the far right making large gains and the prime minister losing a vote of confidence on Sept. 25. It is not clear that a stable coalition will form, which brings more uncertainty to the process of gaining political support and funding.
More on the 2026 candidates
Robert Livingstone of gamesbids.com wrote a good summary of bid politics before the announcement of the final three.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) asked some experts to rank the three short-listed bids. The result is interesting, more for the reasoning that the ranking.
Nathaniel Mah, a 22-year-old Canadian, isn’t someone we would normally liken to an endangered species. That’s perhaps the best analogy for Mah, who describes himself as the last remaining nordic combined athlete in Canada. He currently trains in Canmore with the Alberta World Cup Academy and jumps when he can — most often in the U.S. at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) jumping facility in Park City.
That defining characteristic, the last Canadian NoCo skier, hasn’t deterred Mah from his international competition ambitions. He’s been able to weave a tapestry of training opportunities and support to pursue his athletic goals.
In this Nordic Nation episode, we speak to Mah about how he’s been able to train and compete while Canada’s nordic combined and jumping scene struggles to remain viable. Mah is coached in cross country by Chris Jefferies and Allison Macardle from the Alberta World Cup Academy. Currently, Mah is without an official jumping coach.
Nathaniel Mah racing in 2017 in Planica, Slovenia. (Photo: Nathaniel Mah/Instagram)
Most pressing for Mah and his constituency of avid ski jumpers is the prospect of Calgary’s ski jumping complex at Canada Olympic Park (COP) shuttering this coming October. WinSport is a nonprofit that owns and operates the COP as well as the Beckie Scott High Performance Training Centre on Haig Glacier and the Bill Warren Training Centre at the Canmore Nordic Centre. According to several news reports, WinSport claims the jumps require a costly upgrade and the $500,000-dollar annual cost to operate is not sustainable. (Read more:March 27 CBC article and March 23 article in Canada’s Global News)
Ski Jumping Canada posted a press release detailing its position on the likely closure of the jumping venue.
Making matters more complex, it appears Calgary is preparing a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. In a study (full report) commissioned by Ski Jumping Canada, data suggest a majority of respondents desire events involving ski jumping to be held specifically in Calgary rather than Vancouver. (It has been reported that Vancouver is a possible ski-jumping venue for a proposed Calgary 2026 Winter Olympic bid.)
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