Vancouver Next Choice for Winter Olympics?

(ATR) The search for a host for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games may mean an encore for 2010 city Vancouver.

The signs are pointing that way as the Canadian Olympic Committee tells boosters for a Quebec bid that Vancouver has the eye of the COC for 2030.

Correspondence from the COC released last week by Quebec Mayor Régis Labeaume, an opponent of an Olympic bid, shows the COC losing patience with the efforts of businessman Mark Charest to keep alive hopes for Quebec 2030.

A February letter to Charest from COC CEO David Shoemaker makes it clear that the Quebec bid is not welcome at this time.

"Vancouver will be the only option considered," Shoemaker informs Charest, who has so far not responded to word of the COC smackdown.

"The Quebec bid is a non starter," confirms IOC doyen Richard Pound, himself a Montreal resident in Quebec province. "The mayor doesn’t want it, the federal government doesn’t want it, the Quebec government doesn’t want it. And then you have the FIS [International Ski Federation] technical issues for alpine events," referring to the absence of ski runs in Quebec suitable for the Olympics.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, John Furlong, who led the campaign and organizing committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics, has become the messenger in chief for a reprise 20 years later.

In speeches and media interviews, he is telling all who listen that the time is right to renew venues built for 2010. At the same time he says with the help of other cities in the province with existing venues, no new construction will be needed.

For more on Furlong’s view for another Olympics in Vancouver,check out Vancouver Sun reporter Daphne Bramham’s recounting of her recent interview with him.

Against the complexities of preparation for the postponed Tokyo Olympics amid pandemic protocols, there’s not much attention being paid to the possibilities for 2030 right now at the IOC.

Three other cities have entered into discussions with the IOC about a possible Winter Olympic bid, each uniquely qualified. But the timing for each of the three is unfortunate.

A Spanish bid from Barcelona and Andorra may be too close in timing to the preceding Winter Games in Milano/Cortina in 2026.

Salt Lake City, acclaimed host of the 2002 Winter Games, is ready to hold a second Olympics, brimming with government support. But complications with the marketing program for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles may be too troublesome for a U.S. city to host 2030.

Sapporo, which has been planning now for years to provide an encore to 1972, is also perfectly suited to host another Winter Olympics. But the postponement of Tokyo and the massive costs involved probably will diminish the Japanese appetite for another slice of Olympics for some years to come.

Pound says the IOC is not likely to worry about 2030 until after the Beijing Winter Games in 2022.

"I don’t think the Vancouver bid, if it goes ahead, would suffer from that delay," he says, putting the bid from BC in pole position for 2030.

"There’s no federal issues. There’s no provincial issues. BC in general was happy with the outcome of 2010. Twenty years later to have Vancouver 2 should be quite appealing," Pound says.

Reported by Ed Hula.