Austria and Italy Join 2026 Bidding Process

(ATR) The field of potential candidates to host the 2026 Winter Olympics is growing ahead of a March 31 IOC deadline to get into the bidding process.

Organizers of a joint Austrian bid with Graz and Schladming and an Italian bid from 2006 hosts Turin will be filing a letter of interest to enter into the dialogue phase of the process.

The Graz city council signed off on the move on Thursday. Schladming’s city council had voted to approve it last month.

According to Austrian media reports, the Graz vote also calls for the creation of the "Graz Winter Games 2026" bid company this spring with a feasibility study due by June.

"We do appreciate the initiative," Austrian Olympic Committee (OOC) secretary general Peter Mennel said in a statement to Around the Rings.

"So far there have been informative talks only. As soon as there [is] an official application, we will start to evaluate and define the basic conditions for an official bidding."

This is the second 2026 bid attempt by Austria, after a failed referendum last October torpedoed an effort by Innsbruck to host the Winter Games for a third time. Like the Innsbruck bid, the Graz-Schladming project wants to make use of existing venues throughout Austria and southern Germany.

Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino’s motion to present the city’s interest in a 2026 bid to the IOC was unanimously approved by the Turin metropolitan authority on Wednesday.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the proposal to host another Winter Games has split Appendino’s ruling 5-Star Movement (M5S). Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi, also a member of the anti-establishment party, ended her city’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics when she refused to support it after her election in 2016.

The 5-Star Movement garnered the most votes of any party in Italy’s nationwide elections earlier this month but not enough to form a government on its own. Around the Rings understands that any Italian bid will be dependent on the makeup of the national government coalition, which has not yet been determined.

Graz-Schladming and Turin are joining Calgary, Sapporo, Sion and Stockholm in the 2026 race. Lillehammer is also seriously considering a bid.

At this point, the Sapporo and Stockholm bids appear to be in the strongest position, since both have the support of all stakeholders and neither faces a referendum.

Sion’s bid must pass muster in a referendum in the local canton of Valais on June 10 among other potential pitfalls.

Calgary’s city government is waiting for the province of Alberta and the Canadian federal government to share in the funding for a bid. The city is unwilling to go it alone.

All candidates have until October to get their bids in order. That's when the IOC officially invites qualified candidates into the next phase. Government guarantees are due by January 2019 with the winner to be chosen at the IOC Session in Milan in September 2019.

Written by Gerard Farek

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