Calgary Mayor Questions 2026 Olympics Bid

(ATR) Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is hesitant to fully support the 2026 Winter Olympics bid.

Speaking to CBC from the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games, Mayor Nenshi said the Canadian city would have no problem hosting the Games, but questioned whether it was the right time for Calgary.

"My personal feeling?" he asked CBC Olympics host Scott Russell. "Of course it would be amazing. But my personal feelings don't matter. It's what's right for the city.

"We have to answer two questions: Can we do it? Absolutely, we can do it, and we can do a great job of it. But the more important question right now is should we do it. Is it right for Canada, is it right for Alberta, is it right for Calgary to do it now?"

Nenshi is in South Korea observing the Games along with Alberta's Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman, Tourism Minister Ricardo Mirand and others exploring the Olympic bid. Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee is touting it’s "new norm" bidding policies that the organization says will slash bidding and hosting costs.

Part of the new norm is a more collaborative approach to bid cities. The IOC visited Calgary in mid-January to inspect plans and that status of facilities remaining from the 1988 Olympics hosted there.

"The visit was very productive," said Kyle Ripley, Director of the Calgary 2026 Olympic Bid Project, at a press conference on Jan. 23. "Our project team was able to openly discuss our plans and challenges, and we learned a great deal about the new Candidature process and the new IOC criteria."

The IOC hopes this new initiative will prevent future bid cities from dropping out mid-race, as happened during the bid cycle for the 2024 Summer Games where Hamburg, Germany, Rome and Budapest, Hungary all quit before the final lap.

Nenshi noted these dropouts and said even if Calgary does vote to back a bid in June, a lot can happen before the IOC selects a host city in 2019.

"Once you're into the candidature phase in October … I mean, cities have backed out before, but at some point you can't be half pregnant," Nenshi said, intimating that the city would prefer to remain in any race it commits to joining.

"If we make a yes decision by June, there's probably one or two more key touch points, including public engagement, talking to citizens, where we could still back out."

Calgary will not face competition in North America, as the United States Olympic Committee confirmed it was setting its goals to host the 2030 Winter Olympics given Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Summer Games. However, Sion, Switzerland and Stockholm have all expressed interest in staging the event in Europe while Sapporo could return the Games yet again to Asia.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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