(ATR) A joint bid by the Austrian cities of Graz and Schladming for the 2026 Winter Games has more support than opposition, according to a new poll.
The poll, published by Kronen Zeitung, asked the opinions of people over the age of 16 who live in Styria, the home state for the bid.
Forty-six percent of those who responded supported a bid, though only 12.7 percent were "absolutely" behind it. The other 33.3 percent in favor would approve it only if the costs for the bid "remain within limits".
Almost of a third of those polled, 33.1 percent, oppose a bid with another 20.9 percent undecided.
The results were released as the the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) works to gather enough signatures on a petition that would force a referendum on the bid. The KPÖ says on its website that it has 4,000 signatures so far. The effort kicked off earlier this month.
A failed referendum last October ended Innsbruck’s effort to host a third Winter Games in 2026.
Like the Innsbruck bid, the Graz-Schladming project wants to make use of existing venues throughout Austria and southern Germany.
The Austrian Olympic Committee (OOC) tells Around the Rings that it is waiting for the official application to be filed with the IOC before starting to "evaluate and define the basic conditions for an official bidding".
Organizers for the Graz-Schladming bid are expected to submit their official interest to the IOC ahead of the March 31 deadline to do so. The Austrian bid would then have until October to convince the IOC that it deserves to move on to the next phase of the process.
Four bid cities - Calgary, Sapporo, Sion and Stockholm - sent observer teams to the PyeongChang Olympics last month. Since then, Turin's city government has said it is interested in bidding for 2026 as well.
Written by Gerard Farek
For general comments or questions,click here.
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
