(ATR) The Swiss Olympic Project 2026 is considering four regional bid candidates to bring the Winter Olympics back to Switzerland for the first time since St. Moritz hosted the Games in 1948.
Four candidate projects engaged in a third workshop organized by Swiss Olympic this week in Bern, concluding the consultation phase of the national process for selecting a viable national candidate for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
"We are pleased and very satisfied to see that the process initiated by Swiss Olympic has attracted high quality interest from cities and regions throughout Switzerland," said Swiss Olympic Project and NOC president Jörg Schild. "We will now work together to refine and strengthen the proposals in order to develop more than a simple bid, but rather a national project for the future of our country."
The four regional bids being considered are: "2026 – Games for our Future" (multi-regional), "Olympische Winterspiele 2026 Graubünden und Partner" (Eastern Switzerland), "Switzerland 2026" (multi-regions) and "2026 The Swiss Made Winter Games" (Western Switzerland).
The four projects conveyed their ideas with members of the Swiss Olympic 2026 Taskforce and its technical experts to continue to refine their visions for organizing the Winter Games in Switzerland. Guidelines were provided to the candidates at two previous workshops, encouraging the potential bids to demonstrate a positive and sustainable impact, not only pertaining to the practice of sport in Switzerland, but also from an economic, touristic and social perspective.
Schild, who has been president of the Swiss NOC since 2006, said Swiss Olympic is keen to bid for the Olympic Games once again for two main reasons.
"First, the International Olympic Committee has a brand new approach to bidding which is much more flexible and we know that it is now possible to balance the operational budget for the Games without any financial participation of the public sector," Schild said.
"Secondly, the winter sport industry and the activities that rely on it strongly need to be revitalized in Switzerland. There is no better means than hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games to start this revitalization process.
"In Swiss Olympic, we are ready to play our role and contribute to the improvement of our future through sport."
Switzerland will be hosting a number of major international winter sporting events in the coming years, with the FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in St. Moritz next on tap this February.
The Olympic capital of Lausanne will also host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Various top name Swiss alpine skiers are lending their support to the regional bids including recently retired downhill specialist Didier Cuche, 2010 Olympic downhill champion Didier Defago and former giant slalom legend Michael von Gruenigen.
The four regional projects now have the option to conduct one last working meeting before submitting their final project descriptions to Swiss Olympic’s 2026 Taskforce on December 15.
Switzerland has twice hosted the Winter Olympics, both times in St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948.
The 2026 Winter Olympic host city will be selected at the 132nd IOC Session in 2019.
Written by Brian Pinelli
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