No Winter Games Bid for Germany

(ATR) Germany's efforts to host another Olympics will not include bidding for the Winter Games.

A bid for the 2032 Summer Games on the Rhine and Ruhr is being heavily promoted. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Prime Minister Armin Laschet and Sports Manager Michael Mronz are already looking intensively for supporters amid possible competition from Berlin.

But a potential application for the Winter Games is off the table.

Recently, the manager of a provincial bank in southern Thuringia had propagated a joint bid by Thuringia, Saxony and Bavaria for the 2030 Winter Games. Alfons Hörmann, the president of the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB), rejects the project, saying "We looked at the concept. I don't believe that one can be internationally successful with such a concept".

Hörmann describes it as a well-intentioned initiative. "But if you take the distribution of locations and also see the distance to the Alps, then that is certainly not what will meet with international approval. In this respect, I do not see this initiative as particularly promising."

Some winter sports federations also showed little interest. The Bavarian state government remained silent. However, this is still meaningful because there is supposed to be an agreement between NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet and his Bavarian counterpart Markus Söder that Bavaria would not disturb the efforts of the Rhine-Ruhr region for the Olympics and the Paralympics with its own bid for the Winter Games.

It appears clear that if the Olympics are to take place in Germany, it will be in the summer. But the DOSB is still taking its time with a fundamental decision for an application.

"We are in the process of analyzing the international situation, discussing with the regions and cities that might be considered in Germany,"Hörmann said. "In the course of the next one to two years we have to make a fundamental decision as to whether and, if so, with which city we will enter the race."

Should Germany attempt to host in 2032, the Australian city of Brisbane and Indonesia's capital Jakarta are regarded as possible opponents. There will also be a joint bid from North and South Korea, which IOC President Thomas Bach has repeatedly brought into play himself.

Homepage photo: Wikimedia Commons

Written by Heinz Peter Kreuzer

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