IOC Proposes Changes to Olympic Bid Process

(ATR) The International Olympic Committee proposes changes in the process for choosing Olympic host cities beginning with the 2026 Winter Games.

IOC president Thomas Bach unveiled the measures designed to address the issues that have led to a paucity of potential candidates in recent bidding cycles.

"The IOC will be more proactive in assisting and supporting cities already at the stage where they are only considering a candidature and their first thoughts or ideas about a candidature," Bach saidduring a press conference following today’s Executive Board meeting in Lausanne.

"The IOC will customize its approach to the needs of the cities in order to develop together the best value proposition for the city and for the Games.There will be an increased participation of the IOC membership in this procedure from the very beginning and all this will lead to a lighter process for the cities with reduced costs.

"Because the IOC assistance to a potential candidate city will be for free that means they do not need to refer to any kind of experts or expertise. They can get all the expertise at the source for free from the IOC."

Bach also said that the candidature period would be reduced from two years to one year, producing additional savings in the process. Ordinarily the process for the 2026 Olympics would begin this year.

The proposals will be put forward at the Extraordinary IOC Session on July 11-12 in Lausanne.

Bach blamed "the change in the decision-making procedure in the politics in many western countries" over the past few years for necessitating the changes.

"Now the people are seeing or hearing that the government, the opposition, the sports organizations and business community are united behind one project [and] they are getting suspicious. They are saying if all these establishment people are uniting behind one project there must be something wrong. This must be about putting our money into their pockets this is very suspicious if the establishment there is really united."

Bach says while the IOC could complain about the change in attitude, he stressed that it shouldn’t be ignored, adding "to put it in a nutshell, the candidature procedure has for this world we are living in become too expensive and too onerous for the candidate cities or the potential candidate cities and in this way its producing too many losers."

So far, Switzerland is the only country that has officially entered the 2026 race with a bid centered in Sion. Former Winter Olympic host cities Calgary, Lillehammer, Innsbruck and Sapporo are also seriously considering a bid.

The 2018 and 2022 Winter Games are in Asia, making Europe or North America a more likely spot for 2026.

Written by Gerard Farek

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